


What the Hand Dare Seize the Fire?

by daphnerunning



Series: Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright [1]
Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Alternate Universe - Slavery, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-11
Updated: 2011-10-15
Packaged: 2017-10-24 12:41:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 21,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/263574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daphnerunning/pseuds/daphnerunning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where NEXT are hated almost as much as they are feared, few escape being auctioned off as slaves. Kaburagi Kotetsu is one of those lucky few. Once a coordinator of the largest Safe House for escaped slaves in Sternbild, he's given all that up since his wife's death. Now he keeps his head down, for his daughter's sake, and tries not to walk past Market Street.</p><p>Until one night, when a strange pale-haired man escapes captivity and winds up bleeding and broken on Kotetsu's doorstep. And he has a lot of strange ideas about how the world should be run...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Twist the Sinews of Thy Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a prompt from t_and_b_anon. The title is from (what else?) the William Blake poem "Tiger Tiger Burning Bright," from the second verse:
> 
> In what distant deeps or skies  
> Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  
> On what wings dare he aspire?  
> What the hand dare seize the fire?

“Closed? How can it be closed?”

The guard shrugged, totally unconcerned. “I put up a sign. People don’t go by. That’s how it can be closed.”

“No one likes a smartass,” Kotetsu muttered. He shoved his hands in his pockets, thinking quickly. Kaede’s classes wouldn’t be out for another hour, but the streets were far too crowded to drive through the main highway at rush hour. He’d planned to park his car and walk through the thoroughfare, but…

“Why don’t you just go through Market Street?”

 __

 _Don’t wince. Don’t grimace. Don’t frown. You make it obvious, even to a guard on the street, and you and Kaede might as well be dead._

Kotetsu forced a grin. “Right, right! I forgot that went the same place. Thanks!”

“You’d better hurry, though. It’s going to be busy today.”

“Yeah? Why’s that?”

“They caught a Class-H.”

 __

 _Do. Nothing. For Kaede’s sake._

Kotetsu parked his car in an overnight lot. He could afford the fee, and he’d pick it up in the morning on his way to work. Market Street _was_ a faster way to the apartment he shared with his daughter; he just never went that way.

The smell of the Market reached his nose after two, maybe three steps in. Leather, metal, and the smell of too many animals in the same place mixed together to form something Kotetsu stayed away from whenever possible. 

 __

 _Keep eyes front. Do not engage._

Every part of him ached to do something. The sounds of chains clinking together reached his ears, loud even over the ambient sound. A girl― _she couldn’t be any older than Kaede_ ―whimpered at a blow from her master.

Ten years ago, Kotetsu would have jumped in regardless of the consequences. He’d have fetched the man a good smack, asked the girl if she was all right, and notified his contacts. Six years ago, he would have simply bought the girl, then set her free.

He walked past.

 __

 _Keep your head down. Don’t look them in the eyes. It’s worse if you look them in the eyes._

None of the vendors were trying too hard to sell him anyone. A couple made half-hearted attempts as he strode down the street, but it was obvious he wasn’t in a buying mood. 

“Off to see the Class-H?” one vendor called to him. “Heard he’s really something.”

Kotetsu didn’t reply. They got worse if you talked to them.

He didn’t have to ask where the Class-H was. Unfortunately, he couldn’t very well hurry by without looking. That would have been suspicious. 

Besides, he had to check to see if it was anyone he knew.

He ran through a list of names in his head, mentally preparing to see one of those faces atop a metal collar. The list of NEXT he knew that were still free (and therefore in danger of capture) was depressingly short, and half of them lived in his house. _As long as it isn’t Ivan. As long as it isn’t Tony._ They were the only two who ever came to the city anymore.

He didn’t even let himself think his true fear.

Kotetsu craned his neck to look, telling himself he wasn’t looking for brown shoulder-length hair, wasn’t looking for frightened blue eyes, wasn’t looking for the hoodie he’d bought for her only last week. It couldn’t be Kaede, after all. She didn’t have any powers. She wasn’t a NEXT.

 __

 _Unless she is. Unless those powers woke up while you were away._

Kotetsu shouldered his way between two women and stared down at the Tiger. Did Kaede even know what a Class-H was? She must have. He’d told her.

 __

 _“Daddy, why would anyone want to buy a really powerful NEXT?”_

 __

 _She’d asked the question in all innocence. He and Tomoe had decided when things started changing that Kaede would never need to know about her father. She never needed to know that if he were ever discovered, ever taken, he’d be in the cage, living up to his name._

 __

 _He squatted down near her, flicking off the TV channel showing a tall dark-skinned man surrounded by fire. “Kaede, why would someone have a tiger as a pet? A real one?”_

 __

 _She furrowed her brow. “They’re pretty?”_

“ _What else?”_

 __

 _“Can you cuddle them, if they’re pets?”_

 __

 _“No. You’re never safe with a tiger. If you turn your back on them for one second and they think you’re food, they’ll kill you. They’re not good for anything except to be looked at, so other people think you’re cool to have a tiger.” He straightened up, patting her head. “But people always want them as pets anyway. It’s the same with the super-powerful NEXT we call Class-H. They’re not safe to own, they’re stronger than their masters, and they could turn on you at any time.”_

The Class-H’s hair wasn’t brown. Kotetsu breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the pale waves of hair falling to the ground. For a heart-stopping second, he thought the figure chained and kneeling on the ground was Barnaby. His chest constricted painfully.

Then the slave driver grabbed a fistful of that pale hair and yanked the man upright. It wasn’t Barnaby, as Kotetsu had known it wouldn’t be, couldn’t be. The man was paler, with sharp, fine features―at least, what Kotetsu could see of his features.

“Why is he blindfolded?” someone in the crowd asked. “Why can’t we see his eyes?”

Kotetsu realized with a start that the slave driver was nervous. He was sweating, and didn’t take a step closer to the slave than he had to. He licked his lips. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, you see before you the most powerful NEXT abomination we’ve ever brought to Sternbild!”

“Pull the other one!”

“Really, he is!”

“You say that every time you catch someone who can do more than make their hair grow on command,” a woman sneered. “What’s he do, then?"

“Ladies and gentlemen, do not misunderstand. This slave comes from exceptional stock. His sire was none other than Patient Zero himself!”

Kotetsu, about to push his way out of the crowd, froze. He closed his eyes, remembering a time before everything was so insane, before people acted like monsters and treated other people like dogs. He turned, giving the pale man a second look.

His legs were bent at an awkward angle, due to his ankles being chained apart. His hands were sealed together with the standard cuffs, but there was a second pair fastened tightly around his elbows, which must have been excruciating. The collar was the standard-issue, built out of some new alloy that had been discovered thirty years ago, making the transition into the “enlightened age” possible. Arestium, they called it, and talked enthusiastically about how it blocked NEXT powers. 

Kotetsu frowned, looking closer. Yes―not only the collar, but the cuffs on arms and wrists, as well as the slave’s ankle chains, were _all_ made of Arestium. Not only that… “What’s the blindfold for?” he called, unable to keep silent.

The slave driver glared at him. “Of course, being the son of Patient Zero, we’re unwilling to take any chances. This particular creature has been known to excrete searing flames not only from his hands, but from his eyes as well.”

There was a sharp intake of breath. This slave was dangerous. _A Class-H indeed_ , Kotetsu thought to himself. Anyone would be a fool to try and bring this slave into their home, no matter how secure they thought his cell.

 __

 _Then again, that’s what I thought about Keith and Karina. Look how much they sold for._

Sure enough, the slave driver had hardly stopped speaking when a man yelled, “Twenty thousand!”

 __

 _I should do something. I should buy him. Ivan could get him out of the city, probably. Maybe. I owe it to his father to try._

Kotetsu’s phone buzzed against his leg. Kaede’s picture blinked up at him, two fingers held out in front of her, a huge grin on her face.

Slowly, Kotetsu put his hands back in his pockets and turned his back on the market.


	2. Fearful Symmetry

“And that’s when Gina said that Tommy likes her, but I don’t think he does, because JJ said that Tommy’s been sneaking around behind the school with―“

“Kaede, what have I told you about gossip? Besides, you and your friends are too young to ‘like’ anyone. That should wait until you’re older.”

“Daaaad, I’m almost ten!”

“I know. But that kind of stuff is for teenagers.”

Kaede considered, then clearly dismissed the idea as stupid. “Whatever. If you don’t want to listen, fine.”

Kotetsu sighed. “Go on.”

“You don’t―“

“Tommy’s been sneaking around the back of the school with Estrid from second period, but she’s telling everyone she’s dating someone from the lacrosse team. I pay attention.”

“Okay! So then Mrs. Grant came out behind the school and said, _what is that????”_

“What was it?” Kotetsu asked. Then, the rest of his brain caught up, and he heard the panic in Kaede’s voice.

Instinctively he jumped in front of her, searching for any threat, any danger to his daughter. Nothing leaped out at them from the shadows. “What was it?”

Kaede pointed a shaking finger.

A crumpled figure was draped half on the stairs to Kotetsu’s apartment, half on the floor. It tried to rise, then slumped down entirely on the ground. Pale hair, now matted with dirt and grime, singed at some ends, covered the man’s face. One of his legs was folded under him at an unnatural angle. He’d gotten free of the blindfold and cuffs somehow, but the collar still blinked around his neck.

“Kaede, go get Antonio.”

“Daddy, he’s a NEXT,” she whispered, eyes wide as saucers.

“Do as I say.”

“We’ve got to call the―“

The figure’s head shot up. Kotetsu swallowed. “Kaede, listen to Daddy. Run inside, get Antonio, and don’t pick up the phone. Do it _now_.”

It was the sharpest tone he’d ever used with her, and she positively flew inside. That taken care of, Kotetsu approached the figure on the ground slowly, trying to seem as nonthreatening as possible. “My name is Kotetsu,” he volunteered. “What’s yours?”

Usually when someone said that a person’s eyes smoldered, they were speaking figuratively. Not now. The man’s eyes flared with blue-green flames.

Kotetsu looked around, trying to ensure that there was no one close. The man looked young, fragile. If he’d been a slave all or most of his life, it was possible he’d have trouble with the language. Slowly and clearly, he said, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The pale eyes burned. Kotetsu knew without a doubt that had he been in any condition to do so, the man would have run. He had the look of a runner.

“Look, you can’t go anywhere like that, and you know it,” Kotetsu said practically, waving to the man’s leg. “And if you don’t get that collar off, they’ll track you in two hours, tops.”

“And if I go with you?”

The man’s voice was ragged, as though he’d been screaming for a long time, but still composed. Kotetsu had been wrong; he clearly had no trouble with the language, and spoke it like a native.

Kotetsu sidled closer, again looking over both shoulders. “I can get that collar off.”

The fire vanished from the man’s eyes. With it gone, they looked hungry, desperate. “If this is a trick,” he warned, “I’ll...”

“I know you’re powerful,” Kotetsu assured him. “Come on, we need to get you inside.”

“I can’t walk. My leg is broken.”

Kaede reappeared in the doorway, hiding behind Antonio’s bulk. “Kaede, sweetie, go upstairs and shut your door. Antonio, come help me with him?”

Antonio scooped up the crumpled figure as if he were no more than a child, for all his long limbs and lean muscles. 

Feeling paranoid, knowing he wasn’t, Kotetsu took another look around the street before shutting the door and locking all the bolts. 

Antonio didn’t need Kotetsu to tell him where to go. He carried the NEXT to the first sublevel, something that would have been a basement if it were less well-appointed and furnished. There were a few cot beds, a sofa, a refrigerator, and a heavy steel door above, complete with state-of-the-art locking mechanisms.

“What is this place?”

“This is my basement. You like it?”

“It looks like a hostel.”

“I like to be a good host. Here, put him down on the bed.”

Antonio complied, being as gentle as possible with the wounded leg. He gave the man a sideways look, a question clearly worrying him.

“Yes,” Kotetsu said before he could ask, “He’s the one that’s probably all over the news. Take the necessary precautions, then call Ivan, would you?”

“Sure thing. You need anything else?” Unspoken was the question of whether Kotetsu wanted backup. Sometimes, NEXT who had been enslaved and poorly treated lashed out at anyone, even those who weren’t trying to hurt them.

“I’m fine. You go ahead. Make sure Kaede doesn’t start trying to listen at doors again.”

The NEXT watched Antonio leave the basement. As soon as the heavy door slammed, he said quietly, “He’s a slave.”

“He wears a collar. Doesn’t mean he’s a slave.”

“Then what?”

Kotetsu shrugged. “He’s family.”

“You don’t chain your family like a dog.”

Kotetsu shrugged again, annoyed. “You want to know his life story, ask him.” He reached for the man’s collar.

Fire exploded out of the man’s eyes. Kotetsu, who had been expecting something of the sort, dove under the bed. “Hey!” he yelled, annoyed. “Knock it off, I’m trying to help!”

The flames died away. “What are you going to do about my collar?”

“I was going to take it off you,” Kotetsu grumbled, climbing out from under the bed. “If you don’t want me to―“

“It’s impossible.”

“It should be impossible for you to use your powers with the collar on,” Kotetsu pointed out. “But you’re doing it.”

The man was silent for a moment. Then, softly, he said, “I’m not a normal NEXT.”

“That’s right. Legend’s son, aren’t you?”

The man froze.

Kotetsu left the collar alone for now, focusing on the man’s leg instead. “Hmm, definitely broken. I can splint this up, but you’ll have to keep off it for a few weeks.”

“You called him Legend.”

“Yes.”

“Not Patient Zero.”

Kotetsu avoided the man’s eyes, focusing instead on cleaning the wound around the break. “He was never Patient Zero in my mind.”

He worked in silence, cleaning and stitching up the wound, which had apparently been made by a blade of some kind. The break wasn’t a direct result, which made it easier when Kotetsu had to straighten out the leg. “This is going to hurt,” he warned, and activated his powers.

The man’s eyes went wide, but he said nothing as Kotetsu used his superhuman strength to straighten out the bone, line up the pieces without having to wrench the leg apart.

The man underneath him went paler than usual and retched, but didn’t complain. When Kotetsu looked up, there was a thin trail of blood dripping from the man’s hand, which he’d clenched so tightly his fingernails cut into his palm.

 __

 _Take his mind off the pain. Tell him the story, so he’ll trust you._ Kotetsu kept his voice carefully neutral as he talked. “I met your father when I was ten. I’d always kept quiet about my powers, but you know how they can be. They exploded sometimes. My mother got hurt, once or twice, but she didn’t tell anyone. I was outside once when it happened, and some part-time slavers noticed me. They followed me until I was alone and stopped glowing, then slapped me with the Arestium. They must have been scared that I still had powers, because they beat me nearly unconscious.

“That’s when Mr. Legend found us. That was back when we still thought we could turn it around, you know? That’s what he told me. He said we could turn it around. Said that if we weren’t afraid, people would come to believe in us.”

“He was wrong.” There was betrayal, bitterness in the man’s tone, and Kotetsu couldn’t blame him.

“Maybe. Maybe too many of us were afraid.” He gave a sad little smile. “I was. Maybe if I’d have followed his lead back then, others would have joined up, too. There was a man I knew a few years ago who still thought we could turn it around.”

“What happened to him?”

“Captured. Sold. As a Class-H, like you. Didn’t go for as much, since he wasn’t Mr. Legend’s son. I think he belongs to a CEO in Midtown. Shows him off at parties.”

Kotetsu remembered the look on Keith’s face when he’d been dragged off the auction block. The reassuring, trusting smile was gone, replaced with confusion and despair. “He was wrong.”

“Or maybe he would have succeeded, if you’d helped him.” There was no accusation in the man’s voice, just a statement of fact.

Kotetsu’s voice hardened. “I knew a man who did fire like you. He called me a coward, too.”

“Knew?”

“He didn’t want to be taken alive. Rushed a barricade, trying to get out of the city. They shot him.”

They’d shot him a lot. Kotetsu had turned off the TV before Kaede could see. She hadn’t recognized the flaming warrior as her Dad’s friend Nathan, but that wasn’t the kind of trauma he wanted her to go through.

“People die. My father said it’s better to die doing what you believe than live in fear.”

Kotetsu wrapped soft cloth bandages around the man’s leg, then hardened them with painted plaster. “I have a daughter to protect.”

“He had a son.”

“She doesn’t have anyone else.”

“So you hide behind her.”

“You don’t know what I’ve done!”

The man let out a humorless laugh. “You smuggle slaves out of the city. You try to free them. You go to a comfortable job where you make enough money to customize your sublet into a safe house, and come home at night and kiss your daughter on the head, and tell yourself you’re doing good in the world, and you walk by the slave markets on your way home from work and try not to meet anyone’s eyes.”

“You saw me?”

The man shook his head. “You recognized me. You said I was Legend’s son. The only place you would have seen me was at the Market, since you weren’t sure what was on TV.”

Kotetsu wanted to protest that he didn’t usually walk that way, hadn’t walked that way since they’d sold Karina, but knew that wouldn’t make it any better. “Look,” he finally said, “my powers only last for five minutes, and they’re about to run out. Do you want me to get that collar off, or do you want me to throw you back into the street? I’m not having the police break down my door.”

“You can’t let me go. I know your secret.”

Kotetsu narrowed his eyes, leaning closer. “I’m offering to help you. Don’t repay me by threatening my family.”

The pale man held his gaze for a second, then looked away. “Do it, then.”

The Arestium was strong, but Kotetsu gripped hard. Putting all his strength into the blow, he snapped the collar in half, throwing the pieces to the side.

The blue glow faded from his skin, and he felt the familiar drain of returning to normal. “All right. Now, what happens next is up to you. You can stay here as long as you need, to recover, but I won’t force you to stay. This isn’t a prison.”

“What if I don’t want to stay?”

“Then you can leave. Try to escape on your own. I know you’ve done that before.” Under the collar were old scars, crisscrossing the pale neck with faded lines. “Or, you can wait until your leg heals, and I can try and get you out of the city.”

“How?”

“I have a friend who knows the Free NEXT, out past the walls. He’s good at getting passports.”

“Why doesn’t your large friend go out and join them?”

Kotetsu frowned. “You ask a lot of questions for someone who won’t give me his name.”

There was a silent war going on in the other man’s head, he could tell. He knew it; the desire to trust, to reach out a hand, even with the memory of being slapped away and betrayed in the past. That was how Mr. Legend had died, Kotetsu had heard. He’d tried to free a captive NEXT who had turned out to be an undercover policeman, and been ambushed. That had only been a few  years after he’d saved Kotetsu.

The man came to a decision. “Yuri. Yuri Petrov.”

“Thank you. Hey, can you use that flame to destroy the collar? Otherwise it makes a horrible noise in the trash compactor, and I can never be sure if it’s deactivated.”

Yuri raised a contemptuous eyebrow. “You think I can’t?”

“No, I’m asking if you can.”

In the blink of an eye, Yuri swept out a hand and pointed at the halves of the collar. They twisted, contorted in a way that metal usually didn’t, wreathed in blue-green flame that looked hotter than anything Nathan had ever produced, before melting into puddles on the floor.

“Wow. Nicely done.” 

“Have I impressed you, Mr. Kotetsu?”

“You’ve proven me right. I thought you were dangerous.”

Yuri smiled thinly. “You were right.”


	3. Deadly Terrors Clasp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, from Kaede's POV.

_“This NEXT is extremely dangerous. Before escaping custody, it murdered three citizens and wounded many others. It is thought to be seeking asylum from other NEXT rebels. It is the duty of any good citizen to report any sighting of this creature, in order to protect yourself and your family from this danger.”_  

The TV showed blackened corpses lying on the ground, and shaky cell phone video of a pale-haired demon with flaming eyes. Kaede shuddered and pulled her blanket up around her shoulders. 

Any good citizen…

But her father was a good citizen. He wasn’t a NEXT rebel. Yes, he’d hidden that escaped slave a few years ago, but that was just because Kaede had begged him to help, back before she knew better. After Karina was caught, her father had gone back to being a good citizen.

 _“The Class-H has been suspected of dozens of murders. Its rightful owner, a Mr. Carlton Cromden, is offering a reward of five thousand dollars stern for information leading to the return of this creature, in addition to the usual fee of five hundred for an escaped slave.”_

Kaede wasn’t stupid. She knew her father had friends on the other side of normal, and that treating Antonio as a slave would get her a warning about a spanking and a stern talking-to. But he wouldn’t hide a really dangerous NEXT in their house, would he?

Had he?


	4. What Shoulder and What Art

“I used to know a NEXT that had healing powers,” Kotetsu remarked to Yuri one night over dinner. Kaede was at a sleepover with a friend, and he’d felt odd about eating alone when there was a companion right downstairs. “She’d be able to take care of your leg, quick as a snap.”

“You used to know a lot of NEXTs. You don’t seem to know many now.”

“I used to,” Kotetsu agreed. “My wife and I used to run an established safe house. We had meetings, made pamphlets about NEXT working with humans, freed slaves whenever we could.”

“You don’t anymore.”

Kotetsu shrugged. “I’ve got Kaede. She’s the most important thing in my life, after I lost Tomoe.”

“How―“

“Sickness. She wasn’t a NEXT or anything, she just really believed in the cause.” _And in me. She thought I could be doing so much more._  

Yuri was silent for a moment, chewing his fried rice. “My mother was like that. Normal human, but she believed in my father with all her heart.”

“How―“

“Suicide. Or murder, but made to look like suicide. After they murdered my father and took me away. The first time I broke out of my collar, I saw it on the news. They found his identification on his body, you know. That’s how they learned his real name. That’s how they found us.”

“How did you get out of your collar? How do you keep escaping? I’d think you’d burn yourself, if you burn through the metal.”

Yuri smiled that chilly little smile of his. “I don’t burn through the collar. I threaten to burn through the men holding the keys. It usually works. I rarely even go to market.”

“You did this time.”

Yuri scowled, then stabbed a chunk of meat especially hard. “They figured out the blindfold. That was harder to get out of.”

“How long…you said you first got taken captive when your father died, right?”

“Correct.”

“How old were you?”

“How old do I look?” Yuri asked, looking up at him through lashes that, by rights, should have been burned away.

“I was going to say twenty or so. But you can’t be.”

“Twenty-nine. I was twelve when they murdered my father.”

Kotetsu picked at his rice, trying to sound casual. “You say that a lot. Talk about him being murdered.”

“Well, he was.”

“Usually people would say ‘when my father died’ or something.”

“Usually people turn a blind eye to evil happening under their noses,” Yuri countered. 

“Touché. But doesn’t that keep it fresh in your mind? Doesn’t that make you think about the bad things more often?”

Yuri leaned close, meeting his eyes. His own weren’t on fire, but that heat simmered within, ready to be released at any second. “If your father was murdered, declared a criminal and a freak for trying to do what’s right, and you’d spent the last seventeen years either as a rich man’s dangerous toy or an animal scavenging for scraps, would you ever forget about the bad things?”

Silence fell. It often did, when he was talking to Yuri. There was something so intense about the younger man. It made Kotetsu question everything he knew, everything he believed. Finally he said, “I thought you always escaped.”

“Someone got lucky. He figured out a way to keep me for a while.”

“How?”

Yuri’s voice frosted over, colder than Karina’s ice had been. “You think I’m going to tell anyone?”

“Right. Sorry.”

After another silence, “Kotetsu?”

“Hmm?”

“After dinner, I need your help.”

“With what?”

Yuri shifted in his seat, a little uncomfortable. “I need to shower.”

“I told you, not until your cast comes off. Make do with the tub and the washcloth.”

“I can’t reach everywhere. It’s obnoxious.”

Kotetsu snorted. “I’m not putting another cast on you just because you feel unclean.”

“I can’t stand it. I tried, but it doesn’t work. And my hair feels repulsive.”

“It’s because you keep it so long. Why not cut it off?”

Yuri looked offended. “I like my hair.”

“Well, so do I, but I just think it would be easier if you―“

“You like my hair?”

Kotetsu stopped short. “I guess I did say that, didn’t I? Look,” he said, brushing that aside for the moment, “I’m going to run out of cast material if you feel like showering all the time.”

“Not all the time. I don’t think once a week is too much to ask.”

“You’re a guest in my home. Be more reasonable. If you have to be clean, I’ll wash you.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I’ll wash you.” Kotetsu shrugged, then took his last bite. “No different from washing my daughter when she was little.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Why not? What, you think I’m going to take advantage of you?”

It was meant to be a joke, but Yuri flinched. Not for the first time, Kotetsu’s mind strayed to wondering just what had been done to him in captivity. “I’m not,” he said quickly.

“I know.”

“I mean, if I was going to take advantage of you, I wouldn’t have destroyed your collar.”

“I know.”

“I’d have done it a while ago, before fixing up your leg.”

“I know, Kotetsu.”

“I’d have―“

“Shut up, would you? Fine, you can help me, if it’ll get you to stop talking about how you would have raped me.”

The word cut at Kotetsu’s heart with its ugly sound, worse meaning. Even worse than that was the way Yuri said it almost casually. _Like a fact of life._  

Was that how Keith would talk about it, if Kotetsu could find him today? Or, god help her, Karina? She was just a kid when they took her away, not too much older than Kaede. “If you don’t want―“

“I said yes, didn’t I?” Yuri snapped. “I’m not afraid of you. I could kill you in a second, and you know it.”

Kotetsu didn’t know about a _second_ , especially if he’d activated his powers, but it didn’t seem prudent to argue. “Then why are you yelling at me?”

Yuri glared at him, then turned and hobbled over to the washtub with the help of his crutches. “Come, if you’re coming. If not, you’re making me a new cast.”

He stripped off the heavy shirt he’d been wearing since Kotetsu found him, and let it fall to the ground in a heap. Then he slowly, carefully stripped off what remained of his pants.

Kotetsu swallowed, and gripped the table until his knuckles turned white. The scars on Yuri’s neck were just the beginning. Angry red lines and what were unmistakably the silvery welts left by a long-ago whip crisscrossed Yuri’s back and buttocks, and what Kotetsu could see of his thighs. The place on his wrists where the manacles went was crinkled with old burn marks, and suddenly Kotetsu understood how Yuri had broken free of his cuffs. _He burned them off. While they were still attached to his wrists. Good god, he must have the highest pain tolerance in the world._

 __

 _Or he just didn’t care._

Yuri looked back over his shoulder, daring him to say something, daring him to offer pity.

Kotetsu got to his feet, then retrieved the washcloth and turned on the tap. He started washing Yuri’s back as gently as he could, unsure how old some of the wounds were. “Who was he?”

“An executive of some kind. I never found out what he was executive of. I never really cared.”

“How long did he keep you captive?”

“He owned me for five years.” Kotetsu could hear the faint trace of a smile in Yuri’s voice. “I kept thinking he’d get tired of me. I was wrong.”

“What was his name?”

“As far as I know? Master.”

Kotetsu shivered, and knew Yuri felt it through the washcloth.

“That’s what happens, you know,” he said quietly. “If they’d taken you, it would have been the same.”

“Except I’m not―“ Kotetsu stopped himself, flushing.

“Not what?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Not _what_ , Kotetsu?”

Kotetsu swallowed, then lied. “Not Mr. Legend’s son.”

 __

 _Not pretty like you._

“My Master didn’t care about that.”

Kotetsu tapped at one of Yuri’s arms, which the man obediently lifted to be cleaned. “Who saved you?”

“I did. Eventually.” He laughed mirthlessly. “You can’t keep a Class-H in chains forever. Eventually, they break free. At least, I did.”

“Your old master?”

“What do you think?”

Kotetsu paused, considering. “I think there probably wasn’t anything left to bury.”

“Wrong. He was fat. There was plenty left.”

After a minute, Kotetsu started to snicker. Yuri joined in, sounding surprised in spite of himself to be laughing.

“Turn around. Let me do your front."

“I can reach my front, thanks very much. You do my hair, since you like it so much.”

“What do I look like, a stylist?”

“You look like someone who doesn’t want to make me a new cast.”

Kotetsu glared at the back of Yuri’s head. “I should make you walk around with a rotten one, and see how far that gets you,” he grumbled. 

True, Yuri’s hair was in desperate need of a wash. It wasn’t easy, getting it cleaned and rinsed without being able to just dump the water over him, but he managed nonetheless.

“You’re actually pretty good at that,” Yuri admitted. “You’re not pulling at all.”

Kotetsu worked on another tangle with the comb, then dunked the lock back in the water. “I have a daughter, you know. Girls don’t like it when you pull their hair.”

“No one likes that.”

“Some people―“ Kotetsu broke off, coughing conspicuously.

“Not like that, pervert.”

“Sorry.”

Just then, the heavy door to the basement crashed open. Yuri started up, but Kotetsu put a calming hand on his shoulder. “Easy. Me and Antonio are the only people that can open that door. It weighs eight hundred pounds.”

Sure enough, Antonio’s head poked down through the hatch. “Ivan’s here,” he reported. 

“Good. Send him down, would you?”

“Sure. But Kotetsu…”

“What?”

Antonio hesitated, then shook his head. “Never mind. I’ll let him tell you.”

A second later, Ivan staggered down the stairs. He was wearing his own face, despite Kotetsu’s many warnings, and the jeans-and-t-shirt combination he usually wore outside the city. 

He was also covered in blood.

“Ivan? Good god, what happened to you?”

The boy’s eyes were wild. They latched on to Yuri immediately, and he raised a shaking hand to point at him. “I knew it. I knew it! I knew you had him down here, Kotetsu.”

Kotetsu frowned. “So? What’s the big--”

“Everyone’s looking for him.” Ivan’s voice was trembling, harder than his hand. “They’re combing every house. You should have turned him in. He’s fucking dangerous.”

Yuri stiffened under Kotetsu’s hand. 

“Easy, Ivan,” Kotetsu said, taking a step towards the boy. It was easy to forget how young Ivan was, just eighteen, not really ready for the jobs he’d been doing. No wonder the strain and pressure were getting to him. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

“No! It isn’t!” Ivan’s voice cracked, and his eyes were red around the rims. “He’s going to bring us all down! You’re a fucking fool to take him in!”

Kotetsu grabbed Ivan by the collar and slammed him, back-first, into the wall. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he snarled, fighting for the control to not activate his Hundred Power. “I thought you got over your cowardice years ago. This man is a fellow NEXT, like you and me. Have you forgotten that we help each other?”

“Where were you, then?” Ivan demanded. His voice was hoarse now, and angry tears spilled from his eyes. “When the shit goes down you’re always here with your family.” He spat the last word like it was a curse, then spun and kicked Kotetsu hard in the gut. While he was still recovering from the blow-- _always forgot he was so damn nimble--_ Ivan wriggled out of his grasp.

He ran up the stairs three, four, five at a time, bounding like some sort of gazelle. Kotetsu stared after him, dumbfounded.

“Will he turn me in, do you think?” Yuri asked, keeping his voice even.

Kotetsu ran a hand through his hair, trying to think. “I’d have said no, not ever. He’s been working with us since he was just a little thing, maybe thirteen or so, and I’ve never see him like that. He’s done some fairly dangerous stuff, too, and never flinched. Well, not after the first few. It took him a while to harden that resolve.”

Heavy footsteps signaled Antonio’s arrival in the basement. Yuri, showing much more flexibility than he’d claimed when he wanted a shower, reached down to the ground and scooped up his shirt.

Antonio wasn’t looking. He faced Kotetsu and announced, “Edward’s dead. Heard it on the news about ten seconds before the kid showed up.”

“Ohhh.” Kotetsu closed his eyes, cursing or praying, he was never sure which these days. “Damn. That explains things.”

“Does it?” Yuri asked mildly.

“Yeah. Ivan’s best friend. Ivan’s always sort of been Edward’s sidekick, for all that his powers are better for going in and out of the city.” He chewed his lip, thinking fast. “Unless Edward pulled something really out of the ordinary for him, that means there was an attack on the base camp. Damn.”

“That’s what it said on the news,” Antonio agreed. 

“Kotetsu, your lip is bleeding.”

He stopped biting it. “Sorry. Just thinking. I’m just not sure how we’re going to get you out of the city if everyone’s on such high alert."

Yuri tossed his rapidly-drying hair, easing into his pants. “Who said I wanted to leave the city?”

Kotetsu stared at him. “You can’t stay here forever. Outside is--”

“I know what outside is. I’ve been there. Poor fishing villages and farming towns, where they hate NEXT just as much as they do here. In every other city, the slavery is just as bad, and the living conditions are worse. I’ll stay, thanks.”

“But they’ll find you.”

Yuri’s eyes glittered with something hard in the darkness. “Good.”

Antonio growled, low in his chest, and started advancing on the slender man. “Is this some kinda trick? You a plant lookin for NEXT sympathizers?”

“Antonio, don’t,” Kotetsu warned.

Antonio brushed him aside. “I thought it was funny that you showed up on this doorstep. How’d you know which house to go to, huh? There ain’t that many NEXT sympathizers who’d have patched you up and given you a safe place to hide. How’d you find Kotetsu, huh?” He was nose to nose with Yuri, and Kotetsu got ready to activate his power, just in case either of them snapped.

Yuri’s chest shuddered as he forced a deep breath. Little pilot flames danced in front of his eyeballs, held under control by the barest of margins. “Oh, very well done,” he said, acid irony dripping from every syllable. “You saw through my cunning plan to escape captivity only by killing three men, break my own leg, crawl until I passed out, and be taken pity on by what is _surely_ the city’s only NEXT sympathizer. Obviously then I sat here for nearly two weeks without going anywhere or attempting to contact anyone--because I must be _just_ that clever, right? Then I suppose I somehow divulged the location of this base camp, which I didn’t even know existed, and sat here waiting for the news that it had been destroyed, only to...well, sorry, I’m caught up now. What is it the evil Class-H is supposed to do from here? Maybe you could give me a hint.”

Kotetsu caught Antonio’s fist just before it made contact with Yuri’s face. “Don’t!” he shouted. “Antonio, he’s just trying to make you angry!”

“It worked! Come on, Kotetsu, you don’t think there’s somethin weird about the whole thing? What’s he doing here, if he doesn’t want to leave? How do we know he’s even a NEXT? I haven’t seen him--”

Fire shot from Yuri’s eyes in two blue-green lances. With devastating accuracy, the flames scorched by Antonio’s right ear, left ear, then vanished. Yuri stood up in the silence, a heavy _clunk_ echoing through the basement as his cast hit the floor. “You want to know what I’m doing here?” he said, head tilting at an odd angle. His eyes hadn’t completely gone out, and now there were little flames twitching on his fingers. “I came here on purpose. I wasn’t brought into Sternbild in chains, not this time.” 

“Then why?” Kotetsu asked, hypnotized by the sight. Yuri looked like a demon, or a creature out of myth. “Why come back?”

“I came here to take this city back,” Yuri said, and his voice was the closest thing to rage Kotetsu had ever heard. 

“I knew it,” Antonio muttered. “He’s a NEXT rebel. Kid, you’re fighting a losing--”

“You have no idea what it means when I’m fighting. You have no idea what I’m capable of.” Yuri said it quietly, and the words were all the more frightening for that. “More than that, you have no idea what’s already been set in motion.”

“Set in--” 

“You were right, Antonio. I didn’t find this house by accident.” Yuri gave that thin, chilly smile again. “I had a list of old safe houses. This was going to be the first one I went to, after smuggling myself into the city.”

“But you were captured.”

The fire dimmed for a second, and Yuri looked down. “I was betrayed. As usual. I was expecting it, but the blindfold was still an unpleasant surprise.”

Kotetsu moved forward, a sudden idea striking him. “You’ve been going around the world, looking for NEXT who will help you?”

Yuri’s eyes flared again, brighter, hotter, and Kotetsu felt his cheeks warm. “No. This has nothing to do with NEXT. They aren’t the ones who need to change. They’re not the ones who need to be taught the error of their ways.”

Despite the flames, Kotetsu was sure he felt the temperature in the room drop a few degrees.


	5. In What Furnace Was Thy Brain?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede has always liked Ivan. She's never seen him like this.

Kaede liked Ivan a lot. He didn’t treat her like a stupid kid. He didn’t treat her like she didn’t know anything. He was nice, when a lot of her Dad’s friends ignored her, or were kind of scary. When she had wanted to confess to Tommy last year, Ivan had helped her figure out what to say, and pretended to be Tommy so she could practice. 

So when Kaede came down to the kitchen and saw Ivan standing in front of the sink, she ran forward and hugged him hard around the waist. “Ivan! You’re back! I was worried, because it’s been like forever.”

“Kaede, sweetie, please let go of me. You’ll get your clothes all dirty.” Ivan’s voice wasn’t the happy or nervous thing it usually was. It sounded like he was crying.

Kaede pulled back, looked down at her hands, and gasped. Her arms and hands were covered in dark red-brown that smelled like copper and... “Ivan? Are you hurt? What happened?” 

“It’s not mine. I’m fine. Hey, Kaede, do you mind if I use your shower?” he asked, still facing away from her.

“What happened?” she asked again, more urgent. “If you’re hurt, my Dad knows medicine. Did someone hurt you? Was...” She dropped her voice, stealing a look at the open trapdoor. “Was it the NEXT in the basement?”

Ivan turned slowly, and Kaede’s eyes went huge. Ivan’s shirt front was soaked with blood. There was a dark red smear on his cheek and chin, even covering part of his mouth, and on his shoulders there were more lurid handprints. The stains on his face had been cut with tear tracks, but he wasn’t crying now.

Kaede didn’t even realize she was backing away until she ran into the stove. “W-w-what happened?” she asked again, fear making her voice quaver. “Whose blood...?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

There wasn’t a part of Kaede that didn’t want to run away. The look on Ivan’s face was enough to drive her to tears, even if she hadn’t been so stressed by the situation. He didn’t look like her friend, the one that always had time to play even when the grownups were busy.

He looked like a ghost.

“Is it because of him?” she asked again, more urgently. No one was allowed to hurt Ivan.

“It’s complicated,” he said, but that wasn’t the same as saying ‘no.’ 

“I hate him!” Even Kaede was surprised at how loud her voice was. “I hate him! I don’t know why Dad brought a NEXT home, but I wish he was gone! It’s always bad when NEXT get involved!”

“Kaede--”

“Dad’s so stupid to trust them! Everyone says they’re dangerous, so why did he bring one here? I saw on TV that he was dangerous!”

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear on TV,” Ivan said, but he didn’t sound like his heart was in it. “Not all NEXT--”

Kaede ran up to her room, furious at her father, furious at the world. Normal fathers didn’t bring dangerous criminals home to where their daughter lived. Normal fathers didn’t ignore their daughters to spend all their time in the basement with a weirdo.

The image of Ivan, covered in blood with creepy empty eyes made her shudder. He’d said it didn’t matter, but it did. Things like that didn’t happen before there was a NEXT in the basement.

Two weeks ago, Kaede had written down the number to call if she knew anything about the escaped NEXT. She’d wanted to call at the time--what if the NEXT hurt her father?--but couldn’t figure out how to do it without getting her father in trouble.

 _Better in trouble than dead,_ she decided. The police would understand, especially if they turned the NEXT in themselves. If they found him in the house without an explanation, her father would _really_ be in trouble.

Hand trembling, Kaede picked up the phone.


	6. When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "My father said that evil flourishes when good people don’t stand up.”
> 
> “And you agree with that, do you?”
> 
> “No.” Yuri’s face was hard, cold. “I don’t think there are good people who don’t stand up.”

“You’re crazy,” Antonio said flatly. “NEXT always try to rise up. They always get smashed flat.”

 _I don’t want him to be right._ Kotetsu looked between Antonio and Yuri, solid strength against liquid flame. “Yuri,” he said, trying to sound reasonable, “even if I agreed with you, now isn’t the right time. There’s too much still to protect.”

“For how long?” 

“What?”

“For how long?” Yuri repeated. “How long do you wait before deciding it’s the right time to act? How long are you going to let evil win without punishing it yourself?”

“Why does that have to be my job?” Kotetsu growled. He hated the way some of the rebels would do that, make it his fault that anything bad ever happened to any NEXT ever, just because he wanted to live a quiet life with his daughter. 

“It’s _everyone’s_ job. My father said that evil flourishes when good people don’t stand up.”

“And you agree with that, do you?”

“No.” Yuri’s face was hard, cold. “I don’t think there are good people who don’t stand up.”

Kotetsu bit back a furious retort. Yuri couldn’t be blamed for thinking the things he did. Ten years ago, Kotetsu would have been thrilled to hear him talk. Now, he just shook his head. “Nothing has changed. You can stay here until you can walk. After that, you’re on your own.”

He had one foot up the stairs when the banging at the front door started. 

“ _Kaburagi Kotetsu! This is the police.”_ The words echoed, as through through a megaphone. “ _We have received information that you are harboring a dangerous escaped NEXT slave. Come out with your hands above your head.”_

Kotetsu’s blood ran cold. He looked from Antonio’s shocked expression to Yuri’s calm acceptance. “Kaede,” he blurted, and ran for the stairs. He had to get to her, had to keep her safe--

“Kotetsu!” 

He turned at the urgency in Yuri’s voice.

He wasn’t expecting the blow that knocked him unconscious.

 

***

 

“Kaede?” Ivan’s voice was panicked as he banged on her door. “Kaede, did you call the police? Kaede, _what did you do?_ ”

She opened the door, stunned. “I...I thought...I thought he was making everything--”

Ivan grabbed her by the shoulders. “Kaede, what were you _thinking_? We’re all going to--we’re--how _could_ you?”

“Stop yelling at me!” she screamed, terrified at the fear in Ivan’s voice. She’d thought he’d be glad. She’d thought he’d be pleased that the NEXT was gone where he couldn’t hurt anyone. _“They could turn on you at any time,_ ” her father had told her long ago. 

The hammering on the door got louder and louder. “Why hasn’t Dad opened the door?” she asked, lip quavering. “H-he’s got to open the door! I said we’d cooperate!”

Ivan looked like a rabbit, tensed and ready to bolt under the bed at the slightest sign of danger. “Kaede, there’s a lot you don’t understand. Your father is going to be in a lot of trouble if they find out he’s got that man in the basement. If they find out...” He bit his lip.

“I’m sorry! I just wanted to make everything go back to the way it used to be.”

There was no more knocking at the front door. Now, the policeman’s voice said, _“We’re breaking down the door. Do not attempt to resist. Anyone who does so will be shot on sight.”_

Kaede ran to the top of the stairs just in time to see the door crash open, flying out of its frame, raining bits of wood and hinge everywhere. At the same time, a blue-green streak of flame shot up _through_ the basement floor, and in less than a second, the NEXT in the basement was standing behind Kaede with a hand around her throat.

He turned and said something to Ivan over his shoulder, but Kaede couldn’t hear over the _thud thud thud_ of her heartbeat in her ears. His hand wasn’t tight around her throat, but it was _there_ , and her father was nowhere to be found. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

The policemen were aiming guns at her. Well, at the NEXT probably, but she was in the way. She started to cry. 

“Good,” the NEXT hissed into her ear. “Cry. I’m here to hurt you.”

“Put the girl down!” a policeman yelled.

The NEXT laughed. “Took you long enough to get here. I guess my threats weren’t good enough, eh, little girl?”

Kaede had no idea what he was talking about. Threats? He’d never even spoken to her before. 

The policeman in front, a large man with a mustache, spoke into his radio. “He’s got a hostage, sir.”

“That’s right,” the NEXT said from behind her. “I’ll tell you what I told her father: get out, or I kill the girl.”

 _Is that why Dad kept him in the house? Oh god, oh god, I shouldn’t have been mad at him._ She tried speaking, and her voice came out a trembling whisper. “D-d-did you kill my d-dad?”

“Shh.” 

There were more policemen now, filling her living room, all carrying big guns. Kaede could just barely hear the little voice coming through the policeman’s radio, “ _Check the rest of the house. There might be more of them.”_

Then, all of a sudden, the NEXT shoved her hard to the side, so that she hit the wall, and raised his hands. “All right, all right,” he said, standing tall at the top of the stairs. “I’m coming down.”

The policemen all raised their guns, making horrible metal noises. “You surrender?”

“I do.”

The man with the mustache nodded at two of his subordinates, neither of whom looked happy. “Cuff and collar him. And put that bag over his head. If he starts flaming, I want him in a fucking oven, you hear?”

The men obeyed. Kaede watched them wrench the NEXT’s arms around his back, heard him groan in pain when there was a wet popping sound. They tried to force him onto his knees, but the cast on his leg made that impossible. Instead they shoved him flat against the stairs on his stomach, pushed his head down, and clicked the blinking Arestium collar around his neck. Then they covered his face with a silver bag. It looked like the kind of material in the shiny emergency blankets Kaede’s dad always brought when they went camping outside the city. _“It reflects warmth_ ,” he’d said. She’d called him a dork.

“Little girl, you’re the one who called the police?”

Still dazed, Kaede nodded. “I...I just wanted things to go back to how they were before.”

“You did a good thing.” The man’s words were kind, but there was a hard, ugly look in his eyes. “I’ll make sure Mr. Cromden knows who called it in. There’s a lot of money in it.”

Kaede didn’t care about money. She hugged herself. “What about my dad?” she asked.

“Take him away. And be careful, boys.” The policeman ignored her, and kicked the NEXT in the stomach with a booted foot. Kaede heard a grunt from inside the bag. “This little shit is worth a lot of money. Let’s go.”

Kaede knelt, trembling, until the last sounds of the policemen died away. “They didn’t even look for my dad,” she whispered to herself. “They didn’t even check to see if I was okay.”

“Kaede?” The voice from behind her was Ivan, but she didn’t want to listen to him. He’d disappeared when the NEXT was holding her.

 _They broke my door. They pointed guns at me. They didn’t even ask if I was okay, and they didn’t look for my dad._

“K-kaede?” Ivan sounded scared now.

“They didn’t look for my dad. They _didn’t look for my dad_.”

“Sweetie, what are you doing? Stop it!” 

“ _They didn’t look for my dad!!”_ Kaede shrieked, and the stairway exploded in flames.


	7. Forests of the Night

Smoke.

Kotetsu’s awareness sharpened as he clawed his way out of unconsciousness, coalesced into the single word _smoke_.

Then, an explosion of thoughts: _smoke can’t breathe Kaede where am I Kaede safe basement Yuri fire smoke--_

He couldn’t breathe very well, but he could breathe. He tried to sit up, and dissolved into a fit of coughing.

“Easy, easy.” The big hand patting his back was familiar, at least.

“Antonio?” Kotetsu rasped. His eyes burned worse than his throat, and the left half of his face was a massive flowering pain. “What happened?”

“The NEXT, Yuri. He knocked you out. I...I wasn’t fast enough.” Antonio slammed a fist into the ground, hard enough that Kotetsu felt it through solid rock. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? For what? Antonio, what happened?” He tried to get to his feet, but Antonio kept hold of his arm. 

“Kotetsu, wait. The...Yuri did this thing with fire, and he shot right up through the door. I heard him and the cops yellin’ at each other, and then...they took him.”

Fear raced through Kotetsu. He couldn’t stop seeing Yuri’s scars in front of his face. He wanted to tell himself that Yuri always got free, but he heard that quiet voice in his mind say, “ _Someone figured out how to keep me._ ”  “I’ve got to--”

Antonio still held him fast. Kotetsu stared in confusion. “What is it? What aren’t you telling me?”

“Kaede.”

Kotetsu’s eyes went wide, and he tried to wrench his arm free of Antonio’s grip. He made ready to activate his power, but Antonio hauled him around by his collar. “ _Listen_ to me, Kotetsu! She’s gone!”

Gone.

 _Gone_.

“In the fire.”

No. He just had to find her.

“She was at the top of the stairs. When they took Yuri away, something happened. I couldn’t see, but...”

Kaede was not gone, could not be gone. He was going to take care of her. 

“The stairs went out in the blast. There was fire everywhere--Yuri’s fire, the blue stuff. There was no way up, none.”

He’d promised Tomoe.

“Kotetsu, I’m sorry. I tried to get to her, but everything happened so fast, and the stairs were gone, and I couldn’t see anything. All I could do was pull the basement door shut against the smoke.”

Failed. He’d failed. He hadn’t protected Kaede. He’d brought a dangerous murderer into his home, and now his little girl was _gone_. 

Images flooded his mind of Kaede, all of Kaede, his Kaede, and he needed her _back_. This was nothing like the pain and grief he’d felt when he’d lost Tomoe. This was hotter, acidic, violent.

 _I took him into my house. I listened to his beliefs. I trusted him._

Was this how Mr. Legend had felt, risking his life over and over to protect those who needed him, only to be betrayed? Was this how he had felt in the last moments, knowing he would never see his child again?

Kotetsu didn’t know. He didn’t care. He only knew two things.

Yuri had killed his daughter.

Yuri was going to pay.

*

The inside of the old school was pitch-black. It had been abandoned for a few decades, left to turn to dust and mold in peace. Some kids had busted all the windows years ago, and most of them had been boarded up.

One of the plywood barriers had been attached loosely. It swung open at the bottom--not far, but far enough for a slender, agile person to scramble through.

Once he was inside, Ivan had no trouble spotting Kaede. For one thing, she was glowing. _No, not glowing. She’s on fire. But she’s not burning. How?_   “Kaede?” he asked softly.

The girl was hugging her knees, curled up into the smallest ball she could manage. “Don’t come any closer.”

“Kaede, sweetie, it’s Ivan.”

“I know. Don’t touch me. You’ll get hurt.” A sniff.

Ivan’s heart hurt. Probably some of it was for Kaede. It was hard to tell, under everything else he was feeling right then. _Do I talk to her? It should be Kotetsu having this conversation. Not me. He had it planned. I saw him practicing. Hell, I changed into Kaede to help him practice._

“If I promise not to touch you, can I sit down?”

A miniscule nod.

Ivan took a seat a few feet from the girl, not directly facing her. “Can I tell you a story?”

Another nod.

“I was really shy when I was a kid. That probably doesn’t surprise you. I...didn’t get along too well with my parents. I had a best friend, though.” Ivan’s throat closed up for a second. He quivered like a too-tight string on a guitar, sure that if anyone so much as brushed against him he’d snap. “I...h-he was the only person who ever made me feel like I could be myself.”

He took a deep breath. “He was the only person who stayed close to me when I found out I was a NEXT.”

Kaede’s head shot up, and her flames flared brighter for a moment. “Ivan! You’re a NEXT?”

He nodded, looking down at the ground. 

“Did my Dad know?”

“Yeah.”

Her lip trembled. “You didn’t tell me. You didn’t trust me?”

“Your dad didn’t want you to know.” 

“He didn’t trust me.”

“No, honey. He was trying to protect you.”

Tears rolled down her face, and she hugged her knees even tighter. “He was right. I turned the other NEXT in. Maybe he thought I’d turn you in for the money. I wouldn’t, though!”

“I know. I’m not scared. I trust you, Kaede.” He didn’t have to say that Kaede couldn’t very well turn anyone in as a NEXT now without being the world’s biggest hypocrite. 

“What was it like? When...when you got your powers?”

“Scary.” Everything had been scary, back then. Everything was scary now too, but...it had been better, with Edward. The heartstrings vibrated again, painfully tight. “I can turn into different people. See?” 

He meant to turn into Kaede--it worked best, the first time, to convince people--but messed it up and turned into Edward. _Doesn’t matter. She doesn’t know what I was trying to do anyway. And at least this way..._

He touched his arms, feeling their familiar shape, and tried not to cry. _Never feel them around me again. Stop it. Later, Ivan._

“Who’s that?”

“My friend Edward.” God, it hurt to hear Edward’s voice, even from his own mouth. “He helped me practice. He helped me learn to control it, so I wouldn’t get caught. Then when I found out he was a NEXT, he thought it was great.” He turned back into himself, unable to hear Edward’s voice without hearing it gasping out a last breath, trying and failing to say his name.

“Can you be anyone?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s pretty cool. I guess...is that why they never found you?”

 _They never found me because Edward and your Dad protected me. Without them I’ll probably be on the block by tomorrow morning._ “It’s part of it.”

Kaede buried her head in her knees. The way her shoulders moved made Ivan think she was crying again, but trying to hide it. “Mine’s not good for hiding, is it? Ivan, I don’t want to be a slave!”

“You won’t be.”

“But--”

“I know people.” He tried to give her a reassuring smile, all too aware that it probably looked more like a grimace. “Outside the city. Your grandmother lives out there, doesn’t she?”

“I can’t go there. Not like this. I’ll...I’ll just...” Kaede’s breathing came faster and faster, and the pulse of blue flames lit up the abandoned school building. “I’ll just kill her like I killed my dad!”

Fire exploded out of her, but this time, Ivan was ready. He leapt in the fastest backflip he could, landing hard behind a pile of rubble just as the skylight went up like a torch.


	8. Water'd Heaven with Their Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kotetsu can, and does, run through walls to get to his daughter.

“There!”

Kotetsu took off like a shot, even without activating his powers. Antonio would follow, of course. He was the best backup in the world.

Long legs carried him through the deserted streets; everyone would be inside, watching the night’s events on TV. All Kotetsu could see was the flaming blue pillar. Somewhere close by was the man who had killed his little girl.

Kotetsu activated his powers, no longer caring who might look out a window and see him. What did he have to stay hidden for, anyway? To protect Kaede? To free slaves? Look where that had gotten him.

The fire had started to dwindle, but Kotetsu was moving at a hundred times the speed of a normal man, and no mere brick wall would stop him.  He crashed through it in a hail of rubble, screaming out his rage--

\--only to see Kaede hovering in the middle of the room, head thrown back, shooting fire from her eyes and hands.

“ _KAEDE!!_ ”

She turned, and he only got out of the way in time because something hit him around the waist. When she faced him, the fire from her eyes scorched the place he’d been standing. “ _Daddy?_ ”

“She can’t control it!” Ivan shouted. He was clinging to Kotetsu after tackling him. “You have to wait until she calms down!”

Kotetsu’s head felt like it was going to explode. There were too many conflicting pieces of information. The simmering rage that had powered him was gone with the fact of Kaede standing--hovering?--in front of him, replaced by confusion and overwhelming gratitude. “Ivan,” he said, gently pushing the boy aside, “get off me. I’ll be fine.”

There was no way Kaede was fast enough to hit him, and she wasn’t really trying. “Kaede!” he called, feeling an irrepressible grin splitting his face, “look up at the ceiling, sweetie. And keep pointing at the floor. I’m gonna get you down from there.”

“How?”

“Trust Daddy.”

He saw her swallow, then nod. _She must be terrified_. He didn’t need a running leap, not while his powers were still active, and jumped up to catch her in his arms. 

As soon as he did, the flames went immediately out. They spilled across his arms and back, but the heat was nothing compared to the relief he felt, and then there was just his Kaede, shaking and bewildered in his arms. 

“Daddy! I’m sorry, I called the police, but I didn’t know I was a NEXT, and I’m sorry, please, please don’t let them take....Dad, you’re glowing.”

He kissed her forehead, careful not to squeeze her too hard while his powers were active. “We won’t let them take us. Tell me what happened, Kaede. I need to know everything.”

Kaede told him everything. She told him what Yuri had done, though Kotetsu had to explain to her why holding her hostage was the kindest thing Yuri could have done in that situation. She told him about getting her powers, about running away. “Oh, and I know Ivan’s a NEXT. And I won’t tell anyone.”

Kotetsu kissed her hair. “I know you won’t. I trust you.”

“Dad, am I a Class-H?”

It was the question Kotetsu had been afraid of hearing since the day he’d found out Tomoe was pregnant. He smiled, a little sadly, and said, “Like father, like daughter. Can you do the fire on purpose?”

“I...” Kaede screwed up her face in concentration.

Kotetsu blinked. “That...isn’t fire.”

“Huh?”

 _What’s going on? I saw her do Yuri’s fire, and I thought he was the only one who had that power. I’ve never seen duplicates like this._ “Kaede, what are you doing?”

“Th-this is how it felt! When I did the fire!” She reached down and picked up a bit of fallen plywood. Without even trying, she crushed it to dust between her fingers. “Huh?”

 _That’s Hundred Power. My power. What..._ A sudden idea struck Kotetsu. “Ivan. Can you touch Kaede?”

Ivan had never been one to ask too many questions. He put a tentative hand on Kaede’s shoulder, possibly afraid she’d burst into flames again.

Kotetsu tossed her another piece of plywood. “Can you break that?”

She struggled, but the wood stayed solid. “Dad, I don’t under--”

“Try using your powers again.” When he saw her tear-stained face, he said gently, “just one more time. Please?”

In a flash of light, Kaede wasn’t standing in front of him anymore. Instead, he was looking straight at himself. “I hate it when you do that,” he remarked conversationally to Ivan. “Just so you know.”

“All right,” he said to the room at large, thinking fast. “Kaede, I want you to stay with Antonio. No matter what happens, he’ll keep you safe.”

“Do I have to go live with Grandmother?”

 _I wish it were that simple. No...maybe I don’t._

As Kotetsu had been dreading, he heard the sounds of booted feet encircling the school. _Of course. They saw Kaede’s fire._ “Well,” he said aloud, forcing cheerfulness, “now’s as good a time as any to tell you three a few things.”

“Tell us what?”

“ _NEXT inside, this is the police. Surrender yourself voluntarily, and you will not be harmed. Resist, and we will use all necessary force to subdue you.”_

“I’ve been trying to keep you safe, Kaede. But...” He reached out a hand to touch her cheek, then stopped. _How can I tell her? How can I tell her there’s no place in the world she’ll be safe now? Our base camp was destroyed. Our house was destroyed. And everyone who could have helped us was taken years ago._

 __

 _Because I didn’t help them enough._

 __

 _If I had, maybe they’d be here for me now._

 __

What had Yuri said? That evil flourished when good people didn’t stand up? No. He’d said there were no good people who didn’t stand up. Maybe that was what being a good person meant.

 _“We have the building surrounded. If you don’t open the door in ten seconds, we will fire on everyone inside._ ”

“Go,” Kotetsu said. “Now!”

Antonio scooped Kaede up in his arms. Kotetsu remembered Antonio as a teenager, daring punks to beat him with metal pipes. If Kaede really was copying powers, she’d be fine. Kotestu grabbed Ivan by the shoulders and dove behind the pile of bricks he’d used as cover from Kaede’s fire, just as the bullets started flying.

The volley didn’t last long. The police didn’t want to waste ammunition on an unknown quantity, especially if they weren’t sure a NEXT was even inside. 

Kotetsu leaned down to Ivan’s ear, speaking fast. “I know you’ve lost a lot today, and I know I’m asking a lot more. If you wanted to you could use your power to disappear forever, but you haven’t done that yet, so I’m going to hope there’s still a chance you’ll stand with me.”

“What are you going to do?”

He smiled grimly. “If I can’t keep my daughter safe in this world, I’m going to make a world where she can be safe.”

“That sounds a lot like what Keith used to say.”

“Yeah, well, he was right. You wanna go bust him out?”

Ivan’s eyes lit up for the first time since Edward died. “Yeah. I do.”


	9. Did He Who Made the Lamb Make Thee?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kotetsu and Ivan make a visit to someone they've been wanting to see for a long time: Keith's owner.

_Knock-knock-knock_

“Yes?”

The policeman’s mustache bristled as he spoke. “Ma’am, we’ve had several reports of escaping NEXT tonight. I understand you are the owner of a dangerous specimen?”

“Well, yes, but my husband keeps him very well restrained.” The woman was clearly dressed for a night on the town; all she was missing was a pair of opera glasses. 

“Would you mind if we took a look?” The policeman gestured to himself and his partner.

She hesitated, then took stock of the panorama behind them. Smoke rose from two separate buildings, curling up into the skies of Sternbild. Sirens wailed all over the city, and no one was walking the streets. She adjusted a perfectly curled lock of hair, then called over her shoulder, “Charles! There are men here from the police.”

“The police? What do they want?”

“They want to see the NEXT.”

The man who exited the hallway was sallow and scowling, like a fat vulture in a tuxedo. “Is this about all those explosions and whatnot? I assure you, none of those came from my property.”

“Sir, I understand, but it’s my job to check on all the high-level NEXT to make sure they’re kept properly restrained.” 

The man’s brow furrowed, but he opened the door. “Hurry up, hurry up. We’ve got a show to catch. If you make us late, I’ll have your badge.”

“Hmm,” the policeman said as they were led inside, “what kind of security do you have on the house itself? Some people only have containment fields and such around the NEXT cage itself.”

“Oh, no need to worry about that, Officer,” the woman put in, trotting along behind her husband in high-heeled shoes. “Our system is state of the art. Charles put it in as soon as it hit the market, isn’t that right, darling? Brand new Brooks two-thousand. As soon as the code wire is tripped from any room in the house, the--”

“Quiet, Cici. No one wants to hear you chatter.”

The woman fell silent, never losing her vapid half-smile. 

They led the policemen down a long carpeted hallway. Each of the rooms they passed was luxuriously appointed, from crown molding to polished hardwood floors, and plush furniture in the middle.

“Here it is. We keep it in a converted walk-in freezer,” Charles explained. “It’s really more of a conversation piece than anything. Not like you hang a Monet in the kitchen, is it?”

The policeman stared at the metal box. “Open it.”

Charles gave him a long penetrating look. Then, slowly, he took out his keys and unlocked the heavy door. “There’s a jamming signal in this room, so that it can’t receive messages. Apparently it used to be something of an idealist.”

Ivan had to strain to keep the policeman’s face where it was supposed to be when the door swung open. The box was bare inside, except for a bound figure and two metal bowls--dog bowls, Ivan saw, one filled with water, the other empty. The contrast between the four sitting rooms, three parlors, and even bathrooms that they’d passed on their way in could not have been more extreme. Ivan clenched his hand, hearing the knuckles pop, trying to keep focus. _Confidence, that’s the key,_ Kotetsu had told him. _Believe in the character,_ _and in yourself_ , Edward always said. 

 _How can I believe in a character like this?_

The other policeman took his cue, stepping into the box. “Interesting,” he remarked. “I see you’re keeping him in Arestium chains, not just the collar.”

“It saves on insurance,” the woman said, boredom flavoring her tone.

Kotetsu bent down, checking Keith’s pulse. “Pulse is slow,” he said, keeping his voice casual. “You keep him drugged?”

“Of course. Is this inspection going to be much longer?”

“Just a couple moments, ma’am. Ah, here’s your problem.”

“Problem?" 

Kotetsu tapped the O-ring where the Arestium chain attached to Keith’s collar was fixed to the floor. “This loop is made of regular metal, not Arestium.”

“So? It still can’t use any powers.”

Kotetsu nodded. “True. But I can.”


	10. On What Wings Dare He Aspire?

The muffled pounding from inside the walk-in freezer was very soothing to the ears, Ivan thought. From the sounds of it, the woman had taken off one of her high heels and was attempting to batter down the door with it. 

“They haven’t been feeding him much,” Kotetsu said, helping Keith to sit up. “Doesn’t feel like he weighs much more than you.”

“I remember how big he used to be,” Ivan said softly. It was hard to reconcile that memory of an enthusiastic, grinning young man with the wasted slave in front of him. They’d shaved his head, and there were old scars and fresh wounds around his wrists. Some of them had clearly been made by fingernails, others by teeth. “He never stopped trying to get out?”

Keith’s eyelids fluttered. He blinked a few times, blue eyes unfocused. His lips parted, but the words that emerged were slurred.

“We should get him out of here,” Ivan muttered, but Kotetsu shook his head.

“Too conspicuous to do it when he’s like this. Let’s take him to the kitchen and get some food in him.”

“But won’t his owners--”

“He doesn’t have owners, Ivan,” Kotetsu said sharply. “Remember, they said there was a jamming signal in there. They won’t be able to call for help. Just like he wasn’t.”

He picked Keith up carefully and carried him to the kitchen. Once there, he stripped off his jacket, draping it around the younger man. “Ivan, can you run up to the man’s bedroom and get him some clothes?”

He puttered around the kitchen for a while. There was no sense in leaving before his powers had regenerated, and Keith deserved something halfway decent in his stomach after so long on...whatever they’d been feeding him. _Something horrible, and not much of it._

He had to spoon the food into Keith’s mouth at first, since the younger man hadn’t regained control of his limbs yet. After ten or eleven bites, he started chewing with a little more energy. After the first bowl, he moved his own hand to the spoon and started eating with ferocity.

“Careful,” Kotetsu warned. “Not too much, or you’ll throw up. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Keith looked up at him, and for the first time, Kotetsu could recognize his old friend in that sunken face. It got a lot easier when Keith grinned. “I knew you’d come for me,” he rasped in a voice unused to speech. “I never gave up.”

Kotetsu turned away, unable to face those trusting eyes. How could Keith still say that, after years like this? Didn’t he know he’d been abandoned? He opened his mouth to apologize for everything he hadn’t done.

“Is Kaede all right?” Keith asked, anxious. “What about the others? Ivan, Karina, Edward, Tony, Antonio, Nathan?”

 _Best start with the good news. He might not be able to handle the bad otherwise._ “Ivan’s upstairs. He’s fine. He’s just getting you something to wear.”

Keith looked down at himself, as if surprised to see that he was only wearing Kotetsu’s stolen jacket. “Oh. Right. Thank you. And thank--”

“Nathan and Edward are dead.”

Keith’s mouth dropped open, and his face twisted in sudden pain. “I should have been there,” he said to himself.

 _No, I should have. You would have, if you could have._ “Tony’s fine. He’s out of the city. We sent all the kids with powers out a couple years ago. Antonio’s with Kaede. And we’re going to get Karina after you can walk.”

“And Barnaby? I’m sorry,” Keith said quickly at the look on Kotetsu’s face, “I was just hoping...”

“Still nothing.”

“Here, I found these. I know they’re probably no good, but--oh! Keith, you’re awake!” Ivan’s arms were full of clothes, all of the finest quality, all obviously too large for Keith. 

Keith didn’t seem to notice. He gave Ivan a grateful smile, then tugged on a pair of pants that fit him like a circus tent. He had some trouble with the fastenings, as if he couldn’t remember how buttons went through buttonholes. “It’s been a while since I did this,” he remarked, completely without embarrassment. “Ha! Got it.”

Kotetsu made sure not to look at Ivan. He knew the sadness that would be on that expressive face. He had looked up to Keith, years ago. Now his old hero was hardly able to use buttons. “You think you can stand?” he asked Keith, careful to keep all emotion out of the words. 

“I think so. Haven’t tried in a while. The chains were short.”

 _Every word he says makes me hate myself. And he doesn’t even know he’s doing it._ “Okay,” he said aloud, trying to sound like he knew what he was doing, “you look at least halfway decent. Ivan, we’ll run the same ploy at Karina’s place. Keith, do you want to come with us? If you’re not feeling up to the task--”

“I would be glad to assist you in freeing Karina,” Keith said at once. “I’m very sorry for my weakness, but I will try hard to be of help. Please accept whatever help you can from me, and I will try my hardest not to get in the way.”

Kotetsu looked at the man’s skinny frame, at the arm that was trembling just from the effort of holding a spoon. “How long has it been since you used your powers, Keith?” 

“Since they took me. Oh, and once when the woman didn’t properly secure me after a party. I almost got free, then.”

“Kotetsu, look!” 

Kotetsu followed Ivan’s pointing finger to the TV screen-- _who has a TV in the kitchen?_ \--and the words died in his throat.

 _“It has been decided that we cannot allow such a dangerous creature to be left alive. I have applied for, and received, special dispensation from the Mayor to euthanize the creature.”_

Across the bottom of the screen scrawled the words _“Mr. Carlton Cromden, NEXT owner, candidate for City Council next month, makes controversial statement.”_

The story cut to a reporter with a microphone, milking all possible drama out of every word. “ _NEXT Rights advocates are up in arms over the inflammatory issue.”_

 __

 _“Well,_ ” said a large-boned woman in a T-shirt that read “Garson for Mayor,’ “ _I think this is a disgusting display of how far Mr. Cromden is willing to go for his campaign. It’s easy for us to forget sometimes that anyone could have a NEXT as a child, you know? And I’m not saying they should be allowed to roam free wherever they want, of course. They have to be collared and controlled like any dangerous creature. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t be able to put them down whenever they bite the hand that feeds them.”_

 __

Now the text-scroll at the bottom read _“Elisha Black, NEXT Rights Advocate, responds to property rights dispute.”_

 __

“Property rights dispute?” Ivan echoed numbly.

“They pay taxes on NEXT. That couple had insurance on Keith.”

“It’s true,” Keith chimed in. “The man who bought me was often angry at the taxes. He said they were too high.”

 __

The reporter leaned in, eyes hungry for every juicy tidbit she could squeeze out of the story. _“Well, Mrs. Black, what would you say to property rights advocates who say that Mr. Cromden paid good money for the Class-H, and therefore has the right to do as he pleases?”_

 __

 _“You pay good money for purebred dogs, too. Doesn’t mean you can treat ‘em any old way.”_

 __

 _“If I may respond to that?”_ Carlton Cromden was a fit man in his fifties or sixties, with salt-and-pepper hair and a trim, clean suit. “ _We also put purebred dogs down if they turn on their masters. If those masters do nothing and the dogs keep hurting people, the masters are to blame. Now, this Class-H escaped from my custody and caused the death of several people. If that were to happen again, I would be to blame, would I not? NEXT owners already have the authority to contain and discipline their property at discretion. They should also have the right to put down their NEXT like the dangerous animals they are! The people of this city want to be protected!”_

“He’s making a campaign speech.” Ivan sounded sick to his stomach. “He’s making a campaign speech out of hating us.”

“People have been making careers out of hating us for decades,” Keith said, and he was the only person who could have said such a thing without sounding pathetic.

 _Yuri was right. What mythical time was I waiting for? This is already happening in the world. If Mr. Legend hadn’t saved me when I was a kid, I’d probably be dead already._ “Not just hating us. He’s making a career out of killing us. And he’s going to start with Yuri.”

“Who’s Yuri?” Keith asked. 

Kotetsu’s eyes went dark. “Someone we’re going to save.”


	11. When Thy Heart Began to Beat

“Antonio?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want to leave the city.”

He grunted. Kaede couldn’t be sure while riding piggyback, but she guessed it was one of his “I’ll-let-you-know-when-I-need-your-opinion” grunts. 

Kaede frowned. She’d been thinking for a couple hours, and had come to the unwelcome conclusion that pretty much everything bad was her fault. That had made her want to cry again, but her eyes hurt, and her throat hurt, and crying never really solved anything.

Kaede couldn’t remember very much of her mother. Mostly, she remembered times all three of them had been together, like when they had sleepovers in a tent on the living room floor, or when they all tried to cook together, or when her parents came to her very first ice skating recital. 

But there were a couple memories--of stupid things, little things, times anyone would usually forget--that she couldn’t _not_ remember. She couldn’t remember her mother’s face most of the time, but she could remember her smell. She couldn’t remember any special last words, but she remembered the kiss her mother had given her skinned knee after that first (disastrous) ice skating recital.

She remembered the face her mother had made when she found that Kaede had messed up her room one day, though Kaede couldn’t remember why. Mom had picked up a stray doll, and Kaede had apologized for making a mess.

“ _You can make the biggest mess in the world_ ,” Mom had said, “ _and I’ll never be mad_.”

 _“Really?”_

 _“Really. As long as you clean it up.”_

“Antonio?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you believe NEXT should be slaves?”

He snorted. “What kinda question is that?”

“So, you don’t?”

“Course not. Kid, the things you say...”

“Then how come you’re a slave?”

He didn’t answer.

“Antonio, I said how come--”

“Hold on a second, kid. I’m thinking how to say this.”

They didn’t dare take a car. Antonio couldn’t have gotten a license any more than Kaede could have. Sternbild was huge, but they weren’t too far from one of the Safe Houses Antonio knew about.

Finally, he sighed. “I don’t like hiding.”

“Huh?”

“Your dad was always good at hiding his powers. When I met him, I had no idea he was a NEXT. He got it early, and your grandma covered it up. I think she told all the neighbors he really liked playing with a chemistry set or somethin’, and that’s where all the explosions came from.

“Anyways, I was worse at controlling my powers. Any time I got scared, I’d just bust ‘em out.”

“I can’t imagine you being scared of anything.”

“Everyone’s little sometimes. I knew your dad from school, right? We were best friends, until I started showing. When my powers got too obvious, when I was around eleven, my parents had me turn myself in. It’s worse if you run, and they catch you.”

Kaede’s stomach tightened. She was running now.

“I worked on a farm outside the city for about ten years, hitched up to a plow. Then one day, your dad turned up with enough cash to buy me. Said he got a damn job just so he could get me out of there. He said he’d free me right then and I could take off, or I could stay with them."

“Them? You mean my mom?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, and Kaede went up and down. “So that’s what I did. Never regretted it, either.”

“Antonio?”

“Yeah.”

“Would my mom have stayed? If she was a NEXT?”

He didn’t answer for a minute. This time, she didn’t interrupt.  Finally, he said, “She was just like you.”

That was enough for Kaede. This was her mess, after all.

She was going to clean it up.


	12. What the Hammer? What the Chain?

Saving Karina was harder. Not because she was better protected--if anything, getting to her and subduing her owners was much easier.

It was more difficult because of what they found.

Chained, like Keith. Naked, like Keith. But scarred like Yuri.

 _No, no, no. She’s just a kid._

Karina wasn’t kept drugged. She was wide awake the entire time, watching the three strange men approach her cage. She wasn’t kept in a side room, carefully contained; Karina’s cage lived up to the name, a metal cube of bars suspended from the ceiling. Her eyes were huge and terrified, and she made little whimpering noises around the gag, trying to scoot to the other side of the cage.

“Ivan.”

“Y-yeah?”

“Where did you put her owner again?”

“Um...why?”

“Just tell me.”

“Kotetsu...”

“ _Tell me_.” They’d taken Karina when she was fourteen. _Fourteen._ Had he let it happen? They’d taken her from his house in a midnight raid. He’d spent a week in jail, the penalty lightened because the NEXT was under eighteen. The government was not cruel, they assured him. They understood the natural impulse to protect the young.

No one had protected Karina.

Keith was the first to approach the cage. He held out his hand, palm-up, as if dealing with a frightened animal. “Karina,” he said gently, “do you remember me? I’ll tell you again, if you don’t. My name is Keith. This is Kotetsu and Ivan. Do you remember us?”

There was no reaction from the girl except more whimpering.

Keith unlatched the hinges of the cage door, careful not to make any sudden moves. “Karina,” he said, still speaking in that calm voice that said nothing could possibly be wrong, “I’m going to take off your gag now. We have the keys to your chains, and we want to take them off you. I swear on my life, I will only touch you to release you.”

Kotetsu’s anger still surged, but he tamped it down. It wouldn’t do Karina any good. It would only scare her more, if such a thing were possible. _Good thing Keith’s here. I’d have charged in head-first, and she’d probably be more afraid of me than her owner. I used to know this stuff, I’m sure I did._

Karina said nothing, even after her gag was removed, nor would she move to the opening in the cage. Keith had to reach through the bars to unlock her chains. “I can’t reach your collar from here,” he said. “Can you come to the opening?”

She obeyed as if he’d snapped a whip, scrabbling to do as he said, lowering her head over the edge of the cage.

A movement at the corner of his eye showed Kotetsu that Ivan, face green-gray, had run from the room. Kotetsu couldn’t blame him. He wanted to run away, too. 

Keith lowered the key into the lock of her collar.

“Wait!” Memory suddenly flashed in Kotetsu’s mind. “Keith--”

The second the collar fell to the floor, Karina came alive. She screamed wordless rage, and the room filled with blades of ice. The floor frosted in a heartbeat, and Kotetsu’s feet shot out from under him. The fall winded him, and he fought not to activate his powers. _Less than an hour until Yuri’s execution. I have to save them until I need them._

 __

 _It’s going to be hard to save him if you’re dead_ , another part of him pointed out. Karina was hurling icicle daggers with massive force; Kotetsu saw several of them embedded inches into the wall.

He expected at least one of them to slice him open, but none did. _Is she under control after all? Does she know who I am?_

“Are you all right, Kotetsu?” Keith asked, giving him a hand to his feet.

Belatedly, Kotetsu realized that the reason none of the icicles had hit him was that they were being rebuffed by a gentle dervish, swirling around Keith. He just happened to be in the eye.

“What do we do?”

Keith shook his head. “I won’t use my power against her. No matter what.”

“I wasn’t telling you to,” Kotetsu snapped. “Damn, I should have remembered. We always used to take precautions before removing the collars. Even Yuri tried to flame me.”

“Kotetsu!” Ivan’s voice was urgent, but not panicked, coming from the next room. “You’ve got to come outside! There’s rioters everywhere!”

Just then, Karina collapsed. Kotetsu ran through the wind barrier, blinking against the swirl of dust and ice that tried to choke him, and caught her as she fell. He laid her down gently, checking her vitals as best he could without touching her too much. He grabbed a throw from the back of an expensive-looking couch and tucked it around her as if she were his daughter. “She’s unconscious, but her pulse is strong,” he reported. To be honest it was too fast, maybe a little too light, but there was no time to go into that.

The plan wasn’t working out exactly how he’d thought it would. He’d intended to rescue his friends, who just happened to be two of the most powerful NEXT he’d ever met, and then use this ragtag band of friends to stop Yuri from being killed. 

But Keith was having enough trouble staying upright in his current state, and Karina needed time to rest, to heal, to recover, if that was even possible. _Don’t think like that. Of course it’s possible. She’ll be fine._ _We’ve rescued NEXT in worse states than this before._

Something crashed through one of the windows, shattering the glass pane. Everyone ducked instinctively, but the window wasn’t at an angle facing them. As soon as it was gone, Kotetsu heard shouting outside, car alarms, more glass breaking, and the unmistakable crackling of flames. He looked down at the unconscious girl in his arms, and made a decision. “Right. First things first, we’ve got to get her out of here. Let’s go.”

They left through a side door, about ten seconds before rioters turned over a car just in front of the house and set it on fire. Kotetsu could feel Karina’s scars through the thin blanket, and somehow couldn’t bring himself to care about her owner’s luxury car.

The big digital clock standing at the corner flashed 8:35pm. _Twenty-five minutes. Time is running out, and I don’t dare use my powers now._

“Kotetsu? I can take her. I know you have a lot to do tonight, and I don’t think I’ll be much help,” Keith said, self-deprecating without self-pity.

Kotetsu started to hand Karina off, but Keith’s arms buckled. “Sorry! I’m sorry! I thought I could--”

“It’s not your fault. I should have realized.” _Pay attention, Kotetsu. He had trouble with a spoon earlier, remember?_

A police whistle sounded from close by, and Kotetsu ducked quickly into an alley. He couldn’t remember the city _ever_ being this noisy, filled with shouting and crashing and (he flinched to hear) the odd gunshot. “Come on,” he muttered. “I remember a Safe House down this way.”

The street was a straight shot to City Hall; Kotetsu could barely make out the figures on the steps from such a distance. _If I used my powers, I could see--no, I’ll need them later._ Even without his powers, he could see a small army in uniform, and up higher--did he catch a glimpse of pale hair? Surely not. Kaede told him about the bag they’d put over Yuri’s head.

People were flooding the streets, so close to the city center. Some were just in it for the vandalism, the senseless violence. He saw many of them knock over trash cans, set cars on fire, scrawl dirty words on the walls. Some of them had guns.

“Are they pro-NEXT?” Ivan whispered. “Or against?”

“No idea. Maybe just opportunists.”

Store windows shattered; looters helped themselves to TVs, furniture, expensive communicators.  One man ran by holding a leash in his hand, dragging a young boy by his collar. As Kotetsu watched, a group of women wearing “Garsen for Mayor” T-shirts chased him, yelling something about theft.

Kotetsu hefted Karina higher in his arms, starting to feel the ache. They hadn’t starved her like Keith, though she was too small to weigh much. He wove through half-remembered alleys, taking comfort in Keith and Ivan’s footsteps behind. Finally he emerged on a main street. A woman above was throwing kitchen appliances, pots and pans, small items of furniture out of her window. People from every window in the large apartment complex were screaming. Ivan gripped his upper arm, white-knuckled, and pointed.

That was when he saw the children dying.


	13. What the Anvil?

The first Safe House Kaede tried was run by an old man with swollen hands and a long scar on one side of his face. He looked like the kind of man who cared about his lawn, even though he lived in the city. “What do you want?” he snapped at Antonio, who pointed down at Kaede.

“Hi,” she said. _Remember, Kaede, be brave._ That sounded like her father’s voice in her head, but she wanted to be brave for herself, too. “Are you Mr. Albrecht Loesch?”

“I got nothin’ to do with those people breaking windows,” he said, frowning down at her. “Get off my steps.”

She stepped forward, not to be put off. “Mr. Loesch, I want your help.”

He looked from side to side, as if trying to see if it were some sort of set-up. Then, he glared at Antonio. “I remember you. You were with the Calvins, weren’t you?”

Some flicker of memory in the back of Kaede’s mind surfaced. A moonless evening, not that it mattered in the city, and a panting, shaking man and woman at the door, asking for the Calvins. She’d started to answer that it was the Kaburagi family’s house, but her mother had shooed her upstairs.

“That’s right,” Antonio rumbled. “This is their daughter.” He put a hand on her shoulder, and that simple gesture reassured her a hundredfold. No matter what happened, she could count on him to be behind her.

Kaede thrust out her chin. That was right, she was the daughter of her parents, and proud to be. Antonio had told her some of the good they’d done in the world. 

“Heard they went underground. What do you want?”

“I want your help,” Kaede repeated. “Tonight. You’re a NEXT sympathizer, and I want your help.”

He shut the door in her face. 

Antonio sighed, and put an arm around her shoulders. “That happens sometimes, Kaede. Not everyone wants to get involved. You can’t make them. Sometimes, people say--”

Kaede knocked again.

“Kaede, what are you--”

“My mom wouldn’t have given up. Dad wouldn’t give up.”

Mr. Loesch opened the door, scowling openly. “What?” 

Kaede never gave up. Her father had told her that often, tousling her hair, admitting defeat on some issue of clothing or homework or a board game. Mr. Loesch didn’t want to get in trouble, but Kaede never, never gave up.

*

 

The next Safe House was a rich person’s house. For some reason, that surprised Kaede. When she rang the doorbell, a woman in a silk button-up shirt and too much lipstick opened the door.

“Mrs. Joubert?”

“Ms, thanks. Who’s asking?”

Kaede stuck out her hand. “Kaburagi Kaede. I want your help.”

 

*

 

“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Carlisle? I want your help.”

“Sweetie, it’s not safe for you to be outside on a night like this. Do you understand what’s happening in the city?”

Kaede put her hands on her hips. “Do you?”

 

*

 

“Who told you this was a Safe House? That’s a lie! Trying to get me in trouble with the police, are you? This is a legitimate orphanage, not some--” 

“I’m a NEXT. And I want your help.”

 

*

 

“This has nothing to do with me. This is a Safe House, get it? As in, safe. Stays that way because we don’t go sticking out our necks for every NEXT gets himself in trouble, get it?”

“Then what’s the point of a Safe House?”

 

*

 

Most of them called her “little girl,” or told her to run along home. Some of them refused to talk to her at first, and only spoke to Antonio, as if she was somehow not a person just because she was ten years old. None of them wanted to help. On Antonio’s shoulders, Kaede made it to eight safe houses, one after the other.

Not a single person succeeded in telling her “no.”


	14. Did He Smile, His Work to See?

Kotetsu remembered the building with the red brick wall, the bright blue door. It was the Safe House where he’d intended to leave Karina to heal. Usually, it was the kind of place NEXT kids got dropped off, especially the ones without much in the way of power. The last time he’d been there, none of the kids had been above a Class-C, body-modification. 

Now the kids--seven or eight of them--were lined up on their knees in front of the Safe House while a policeman, backed up by a full squad, shot them in the head.

Kotetsu was still more than a block away when the second child fell. It only took him seconds to decide to activate his power.

It was seconds too long.

In a blinding flash and a stench of ozone, the policeman fell before Kotetsu’s eyes even adjusted to what he’d seen. The third child in line, a compact kid with dirty-blonde hair, stood up in less time than it took for the rest of the squad to point their guns. Lightning shot from her fingers, electrified the air around her. 

Those few who hadn’t been struck by her bolts fled; the rest crumpled to the ground. A tiny girl, maybe four or five years old, clung to the lightning girl’s leg, weeping.

Kotetsu jogged the rest of the way to the Safe House, taking care not to jostle Karina too much. 

“That was amazing!” Ivan caught up, eyes bright with admiration. “That lightning!”

The girl tensed, crooking her hand back in a martial-arts pose, clearly ready to unleash her power again at the slightest provocation. “Don’t come any closer! These children are under my protection! I won’t allow any harm to come to them!”

“What about them?” Kotetsu gestured to the two who had been shot, now lying in a spreading puddle of blood. “Weren’t they under your protection?”

Anger flared in the girl’s eyes, but there was no accompanying surge of power. _She’s got control. She’s good. Maybe older than she looks, too._ “They put the cuffs on me,” she said in a cold, flat voice, and held up a pair of handcuffs. From that angle, he could see that her wrists had been scraped bloody, and her thumbs weren’t anywhere near where they should have been.

Kotetsu bowed his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to question your devotion, Miss.”

From behind him, he heard the sounds of another explosion, followed immediately by another damned car alarm. “I’m sorry,” he said again, “but I need your help. My friend is a Class-H, and she’s wounded. I need a safe place for her to be tonight.”

The girl stared at him as though he’d started speaking his native language. “Are you insane? I’m not staying inside tonight. This could be a revolution.”

“How old are you?”

She didn’t flinch. “Thirteen.”

“You’re too young--”

“--to want to grow up free?” She glared at him. “There are beds inside. Your friend is welcome to one of them. But I’m going to City Hall.”

Keith beamed at her, as if unaware that he was in the middle of an argument--or a war zone, for that matter. “I admire your enthusiasm!” he exclaimed. “I would be honored to fight along side you, and fight again!”

The girl gave him a quick look, as if checking to see if he was messing with her. Then, she started helping the rest of the children up to their feet. “Come on, inside. Remember how to lock the special door from the inside? Janie, you’re in charge, okay? Just like we practiced. Don’t be scared to go in, everything scary is out here tonight. Don’t open for anyone but me, okay?”

Kotetsu followed them in, laying Karina gently on one of the empty beds. The house had changed since he’d last seen it; now, it resembled a bunker more than anything. 

Something tore, and he turned to see Ivan ripping a notebook page from the nightstand. “I’m leaving her a note,” he explained. “So she knows we’re coming back for her.”

Kotetsu left him to it. Outside, the girl was struggling to pick up the bodies of the children she hadn’t been able to save. 

Kotetsu knelt next to her. “Here,” he said quietly. “Let me do that.” The boy couldn’t have been more than seven, and felt far too light in his hands.

“Thanks.” The girl’s voice was steady, but she scrubbed a tear away with one wrist. He didn’t mention it. She seemed like the kind of girl that wouldn’t thank him for pointing out her tears. “My name’s Pao-Lin.”

“Kotetsu. My friends are Keith and Ivan, and Karina’s asleep inside.” He carried the children in out of the cold, trying not to look too closely. It seemed like everything that happened that day was trying to break his threshold for horror, until the only thing left was his driving motivation to _make it stop_. At this point, he didn’t think anything could be more surprising, more disgusting, more appalling than what he’d already seen. They swam in front of his mind: Keith, Karina, Ivan covered in Edward’s blood, a dead child in his arms. 

Yuri was right. The world was broken. At this point, Kotetsu wasn’t sure there was anything left that could be fixed. He wasn’t sure there was anything left that could be saved. Worse than that, he wasn’t sure there was anything left that _should_ be saved. 

“I’d say it was nice to meet you,” Pao-Lin said, staring at the blood on the ground, “but I don’t think anything is going to be nice for a long time.”

“You’re good with those kids. Are any of them...” He left the question unfinished, not wanting to be indelicate. He’d heard of NEXT owners who bred them like animals, hoping to get another powerful slave out of the deal. It backfired usually, since it was illegal to own a non-NEXT child, and all children were officially non-NEXT until proven otherwise. Pao-Lin was young, but Kotetsu had stopped trusting the goodness of NEXT owners years earlier.

Much to his relief, she shook her head. “I was just the oldest. My parents got me into Sternbild when I started showing.”

“Got you _in_? Most people try to get out.”

She stared at him, green eyes uncomprehending. “Do you know what it’s like out there? Where I’m from, they have a zero-tolerance policy. You ever do anything to hurt a ‘real’ human, and they put you down.”

The digital clock ticked to 8:49. “We’re going that way ourselves,” Kotetsu muttered. “Come on. There’s not much time. I don’t know if you can keep up, but I’m getting to City Hall before my friend dies. Ivan! Keith! I’m going. You can come or stay.”

He took off at a dead run, long legs straining under the stretch. He’d pushed himself too hard today; his body wasn’t used to this much exercise in one night, and he had hit his limit ages ago. _Too bad._

It was possible, just remotely possible, that he’d be able to do something. To make some sort of a difference. _Maybe I can make up for hiding since Tomoe died. Maybe I can still make her proud of me._

 _Maybe I can still save the world for Kaede, if not for me._

The lights of City Hall blazed ahead, just as the clock ticked to 8:55.

 _Out of time. Nothing left to lose._

 __

A massive gust of wind buffeted his right side, and he turned to see Keith running along beside him, occasionally lifted off the ground by the air he’d summoned. He couldn’t control it well enough to fly (not without risking whacking himself into a building), but he could augment his body’s natural speed.

Kotetsu tried to focus, tried not to think about how the rest of his friends might die tonight. Ivan was tough for a kid, but he was so young. Keith was so fragile right now. 

A small part of him knew that the state of the world wasn’t his fault, that one man, no matter what Class of NEXT, would never be able to change the world by himself. The state of NEXT had been set in motion ten years before he was born, when the first NEXT was caught and collared. It had been irreversible since Mr. Legend, Yuri’s father, was killed by those he was trying to protect.

 __

 _At least Kaede is safe. Antonio would never let me down. I don’t deserve any of them as friends._

 __

 _Doesn’t matter. Kaede’s safe._

 __

He activated his powers with a scream, and the road between him and City Hall melted away.


	15. Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright

Kotetsu wasn’t sure what he was expecting on the steps of City Hall. A gallows, or maybe a guillotine. Something that would convey “execution.”

What he saw was a man in a suit holding a gun, and a bound kneeling figure with a bag over his head. That screamed of _wrong_ to him, even more than the idea itself. _Like he’s not even a person. Like he’s not even worthy to die on his feet._

 __

 _I shouldn’t still be surprised._

Scenes flashed before his eyes as he streaked through the streets. 

Eight years old. Muramasa, teasing, gave him a shove. Kotetsu shoved him through the wall and into the next door yard. 

Eight years old. Mom made him sleep in the basement while the cops were in the area. The cat crawled in, and he killed it trying to pet it.

Ten years old. Activating his powers to run from a bully, he stopped glowing alone in an alleyway. Five slavers found him, collared him. They beat him with the heavy Arestium manacles. He lost three teeth and broke eight bones before Mr. Legend showed up.

Eleven years old. His best friend was led away in chains. Mom said he was pulling a plow now, like an ox. No, he couldn’t come play ever again.

Thirteen years old. He found a body wearing a collar and reported it to the police. They said it didn’t matter.

Sixteen years old. She was so beautiful, but she’d hate him once she found out he was a NEXT. She’d have to. They all did.

Eighteen years old. “It makes you special.”

Twenty-five years old. “I hope she’s just like you.” _I don’t_.

Twenty-seven years old. Nothing they said would ever leave the basement. Antonio, Marcia, Keith, Nathan, Kelly. Keith introduced his friend Barnaby to the group.

Twenty-eight years old. Someone tagged their house with “CAGE FREAK WHORES.” They moved.

Twenty-nine years old. The last time he saw Barnaby. He saw the glow fade from Barnaby’s skin, saw the metal bat swung at his friend’s head, saw him fall from the fortieth floor. Never found the body. Never stopped looking.

Thirty years old. He gave up on everything except Kaede when the first clump of dirt hit his wife’s coffin.

Last night. Woke up.

Usually it felt like his mind functioned normally, but this time he could feel the Hundred Power accelerating his very neurons. Each block took him a single step, each thought a thousandth of a second, and the clock hadn’t hit 8:56 before he cleared the last block.

His ears were good enough that he heard the order, “FIRE!”

The bullets flew all around him, and he wanted to laugh. He’d never felt so powerful, never felt so alive. It was five, four, three steps to Yuri, and then it would all be over. 

The bullet struck him in the upper thigh, but that didn’t matter. He would press on, use his body’s enhanced healing to make it through until--

The blue glow died.

Kotetsu hit the steps of City Hall face-first, and the pain flared into his mind brighter, hotter than anything he’d ever felt. He clawed at the stairs, desperate to make it, because he _couldn’t_ come this far and fail, he wouldn’t _let_ himself fail. 

He heard the police issue boots stamp against the ground, but he didn’t need enhanced senses to hear the guns go off again. There were screams, and how many of his friends had gotten this far? How many of them had just been mowed down? _Where did my powers go?_

He dragged himself up stair after painful stair, leaving a long trail of blood behind. He could see Yuri clearly now even without super eyesight, and he looked more broken than ever. Both of his shoulders were hugely swollen and useless, his cast had been removed so his thighs could be lashed to his calves, and his head was still in that silver heat-bag.

“Y-yuri,” Kotetsu groaned.

Dark polished shoes filled his vision. “Another one, ready to die? Very well. With the way you slaves have turned the city on its head, I’m sure no law-abiding citizens will mind if I put two rats down instead of one. How do you like the Arestium bullets, by the way?”

 

*

 

Kaede saw her father race down the street, and her heart swelled with pride. He was a hero, just like Mom used to say. He was faster than anything, and stronger, too.

“Antonio, go!” she urged, and the big man started to run. He could cover ground pretty fast when he had a mind to.

Kaede saw the man standing behind the podium point a big black gun at her father, take aim, and fire.

She saw the spray of blood.

She saw her father hit the ground.

Kaede screamed. She wasn’t the only one. Antonio yelled her Dad’s name, but it didn’t matter, because he was _falling_. Antonio fell, and then somehow, in a whirlwind of grief and confusion, Kaede was flying. 

The wind buffeted her around in the air, sweeping her off the ground, sending her careening towards the steps, completely out of control. It didn’t hurt when she landed--very little hurt, while Antonio was the last NEXT she’d touched--and she scrambled back to her feet. 

 _I have to get to Dad. I have to get to Dad. Maybe he’s still alive. I have to get to him!_

Something--someone--streaked by her in the same dust-colored whirlwind that had picked her up, traveling faster than she’d ever thought a human could run. The police were aiming at him, but balls of wind bowled them over like so many dolls. From the other side of the street, she saw lightning crackling out of a girl’s hands.

And there were more; two invisible hands knocked the heads of two policemen against each other; a middle-aged man levitated broken bricks over his head and hurled them at the advancing horde; a housewife landed a kick on one man’s chest that sent him flying _through_ the nearest building; a group of teenagers chanted near the edges, right before three policemen pointed guns at their own heads; one policeman shot another, then transformed into a different one, and repeated, showing occasional flashes of blonde hair and violet eyes. Kaede sucked in her breath, realizing that she just saw Ivan kill several people.

“I’m sure no law-abiding citizen will mind if I put two rats down instead of one.” 

 _This is my fault. This is my mess._

Kaede ran for the man, determined to stop him any way she could. 

Another gust of wind hit her in the small of the back, _threw_ her through the air. Faintly, she heard a young man yelling an apology for his clumsiness.

Then she landed, sprawled on top of the NEXT that had lived in her basement for weeks. The gun was pointed at her, it was firing, and all she had time to do was scream.

Fire shot from her eyes, farther, hotter than ever before, so much that it shoved her and the kneeling man back a dozen paces across the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get them to stop flaming, and heard a moan from underneath. Hardly daring to trust herself, she opened her eyes.

The reason for the groan was obvious. Somehow, she’d ended up kneeling on the man’s back, her knees on either side of his spine. “Sorry,” she gasped, and climbed off him. She pulled the bag off his head, and was stunned at what she saw.

The fact that he was bleeding from the mouth, that his nose was broken, that there were bruises everywhere, didn’t surprise her. What surprised her was that he was _grinning_. “You’re Kaede, aren’t you?” he asked, working his lips around the swelling in his mouth.

“Y-yes.”

“Thank you. Sorry about before. Are you using my power?”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry?”

“K-Kaede...”

She heard another groan, this one from the other side, and whipped around. “Dad! You’re alive!”

He didn’t look good; his skin was gray and waxy, and he felt colder than usual, but he was undeniably alive. Kaede ran to him, propped his head up on her folded legs, and took his head in her hands. “Dad, I did it! I cleaned up my mess!”

“Kaede...so glad...” His eyelids started to flutter closed. 

“Dad!” Her heart was beating too fast; she was sure she’d never felt fear like this before. All around City Hall NEXT fought policemen, and Kaede couldn’t have cared less. “D-dad...I did it. I made it right, didn’t I?”

His eyes closed.


	16. In What Distant Deeps or Skies Burnt the Fire of Thine Eyes?

“Get those pants off him. Yes, now. Sorry, little girl, I need you to move.”

 _Snip-snip-snip_

 __

There was a disgusting noise as wet fabric tried to stick to his wound.

“I need the scalpel.”

“Sir, I don’t think you’re--”

“The _scalpel_ , Henderson.”

“Go on, Henderson, do as he says.”

“But Ma’am, he’s not even a doctor.”

“Fuck, I’ll get it myself.”

 _Pain._ It sizzled through his leg, burned behind his ears, under his jaw, sparkled across his eyes, scraped over the bottom of his feet. Kotetsu had thought that pain stopped after death. Then again, he’d thought that strange men arguing over scalpels would probably stop after death, too.

“Is he gonna be okay?”

“Who let the girl in here?” Was that voice familiar?

Another slice into his leg. If he hadn’t been so unconscious, Kotetsu would have screamed.

“Can’t you shut him up? Give him drugs or something?” Henderson had a nervous voice. The part of Kotetsu’s mind that was trying to make sense of everything, even as most of him floated in a haze of pain, pictured a nervous little man. Like Ivan, but less good-looking.

 _Ivan. Did he make it? Antonio? Keith?_

So tired. Maybe he could sleep, just for a little while.

If only the pain in his leg would stop.

“No telling what their effect would be. He can have them later, if he survives.” The voice was definitely familiar. If only Kotetsu’s mind would work.

“Yes, Mr. Clark.”

“Extraction forceps.”

“That’s not really what they’re called--”

“Fine. Hand me grabby thingies.”

Crying. Kaede was crying.

 _If I keep my eyes closed just a little longer, I’ll see Tomoe._ He didn’t know how he knew, but the conviction was strong. 

It wasn’t as strong as the pain. Whatever instrument the not-doctor had found was digging into him, searching through his flesh.

“Someone hold him down."

“I’m trying!"

Gunshots. 

“Sir, Ma’am, they’ve broken through to the second hall.”

“The rebels, or the police?”

“Hard to say. There’s a lot of fighting.”

“Well, the rebels can’t get through the Arestium door, and I have a court order to keep the police out of here.” The woman’s voice was warm, would have been friendly if she hadn’t been so businesslike. 

“He’s still losing blood.” That was the man, the one who Kotetsu thought had been cutting him earlier. Was he still cutting? His leg was a mass of pain, making it impossible to tell.

“Does he need my blood? Would that help? I’m his daughter.”

 _No, Baby. Not for my sake._

“O-or a kidney, or something? I think I’ve got an extra.”

“Got it!” 

A horrendous wrenching tug, and this time Kotetsu heard himself screaming. 

“What now? What are you going to do now?” His daughter, always demanding. God, she was like Tomoe.

“In trials, the subject regained the use of the remainder of the five minute power after the Arestium was removed from his body. If he isn’t too weak to activate his NEXT abilities, he should be able to amplify his body’s healing power.”

Could he? It sounded good. But he was so tired, and hurt so much. And Tomoe was waiting.

“Dad? Can you hear me?”

Hadn’t he done enough? Hadn’t he fought long enough? 

“Dad, they say you have to use your power. Can you use your power for me, please?”

It sounded so good to just sleep, to lie down. To let someone else--

“I didn’t think you would give up, Kotetsu.” Yuri. “What do you plan to do, let _me_ take care of your daughter?”

Well, that was just stupid.

But Tomoe--

“I need you, Dad. Please.” Kaede was crying again.

“Come on, Kaede. Your father has made his choice.”

That bastard. Kotetsu would show him.

Tomoe could wait a little longer.

Kotetsu opened his eyes, wincing against the light.

“Hi, there,” said the man leaning over him, holding what looked like bloody tongs. “Can you activate your power? I don’t want my first patient to die on me that fast.”

Kotetsu was sure he’d never glowed so brightly. He felt his leg scab over, felt the scab peel off, knew that he’d only see shiny pink skin there later. Odd as it sounded, he felt his blood renew itself, produce more cells, and every part of him tingled abominably.

Finally, he found his voice. “Hi, Barnaby.”

The blonde head tilted. “Barnaby? You must be mistaking me for someone else.” He dropped the bullet onto a table, then stuck out his bloody hand. “Henry Clark. I’m a research scientist.”

“Dad?” Kaede poked her head into the room, then squealed. “It worked! Yuri, it worked! He did it! Your upside-down psychology worked!”

She hit Kotetsu around the waist, and he resolved never to tell her how much that hurt. 

Yuri followed after her, fumbling with the controls of a motorized wheelchair. His leg had been set again--by someone with more evident skill than Kotetsu boasted, that was for certain. Despite the tightness around his eyes and the various other wounds he sported, he was still smiling that enigmatic little smile. “Don’t be silly, Kaede. I’m sure it was love for you that brought him back. Wasn’t it, Kotetsu?”

Kotetsu was sure that with anyone else, he’d at least be able to tell if they were being sarcastic. Well, whether he was or not, he was right. “Course it was. Come give Daddy a kiss, would you?”

Kaede complied, for once without complaining about the chore. 

Yuri looked him up and down, those penetrating blue eyes missing nothing. “Thank you,” he said softly. “You brought my revolution.”

Kotetsu huffed out a laugh. “I thought you were supposed to do that. What was it you told me? You said that I had no idea what had already started to move, or something. I kinda thought you’d have an army ready to go.”

Yuri gave him that smile again, then reached out and brushed his fingers over Kotetsu’s outstretched hand. “I did.”

His wheelchair whirred around, and he rolled out of the room, leaving Kotetsu’s mouth hanging open, his hand tingling.

“Mr. Clark?” Kaede asked. “Could I sleep in here?”

“I don’t see any reason why not. I’m not a babysitter.”

“Kaede, sweetie, climb up here with me. You can sleep here.”

Kaede curled up against his side. It hurt. Kotetsu didn’t care.

His eyes were drawn back again and again to the young scientist who’d taken the bullet out of his leg. “You’re sure your name isn’t Barnaby?” he asked again. 

Mr. Clark adjusted his glasses. “I think I know what my own name is. As nicknames go, that isn’t even a very good one.”

“Sorry,” Kotetsu said, thoroughly confused. _Maybe he had a twin? With a different last name? That he somehow never told me about?_ “You just look like someone I used to know.”

As he was speaking, the door opened to admit a middle-aged woman. She was blonde, and gorgeous, and wore a lab coat so similarly to her son that Kotetsu saw double. “Oh, you’re awake,” she said, but there was fear in her eyes. “Henry, why don’t you let our patient rest? You’ve done more than enough for the day.”

Mr. Clark looked down at him for a long minute. The woman shifted uncomfortably behind him. Finally, he said, “All right. I’ll check on him in a few hours.” He strode out the doors, letting them swing shut behind him.

Kotetsu looked up at the woman, meeting her gaze. “Henry Clark?”

“That’s right.”

“That man’s name is Henry Clark?”

“It is.”

“And it’s never been anything else?”

The woman swallowed hard. Her jaw clenched, and her eyes darted around the room. 

Kotetsu sighed and sat up. “Ma’am, I’m not a policeman, obviously. I’m only asking because he looks exactly like a friend of--”

“I know exactly who you are, Kaburagi T. Kotetsu,” she said suddenly. “You’re the rebel NEXT who led a dangerous revolution in front of City Hall. You’re the one who sent his ten-year-old daughter to every Safe House in Sternbild, asking for NEXT soldiers.” Her voice dropped several decibels, and her eyes darted towards the door. “You’re the last one to see my son alive.”

“That was him,” Kotetsu said, triumphant. “I knew--”

“No. That was Mr. Henry Clark. My _nephew_.”

“But--”

Her eyes flashed in a way that reminded Kotetsu uncomfortably of Tomoe when she was angry. “My son died on top of a building six years ago, Mr. Kaburagi. A dear friend of mine found my _nephew_ at the bottom of that building, and hired the best team of doctors in the world to put him back together. My _nephew_ is not a rebel. He is not on any watch lists. He is not a known terrorist, unlike my son. He is not a NEXT.”

“You can’t tell him to keep his powers--”

“He has no powers.”

Kotetsu glared at her, but kept his voice even for the sake of his sleeping daughter. “Stop cutting me off whenever I try to talk. Of course he has powers. They don’t go away just because you lose your memories.”

She gave him a thin little smile. “Do you want the best for your daughter, Mr. Kaburagi?”

“Of course.”

“Would you have wanted her to grow up to be a NEXT?”

He started to answer, then fell silent. _“I want her to be just like you,”_ Tomoe had said. He hadn’t. 

“I heard she set a man on fire today. What is she, ten? You must be so proud. No, don’t yell at me,” she said, holding up a hand. “I’m just illustrating my point. If you could keep her safe by taking her powers away, even taking her memories away, wouldn’t you?”

“What did you do to him?”

“He’s ill.” The woman produced a small bottle from her pocket. “He takes pills for his condition.”

 _Arestium pills. I heard rumors, but I didn’t think such a thing really existed._  

“Now. If you’ll excuse me, my nephew needs to take his medicine.” She left a chill in her wake when she left.

Kotetsu stared at the ceiling. Was she right? Was it safer, this way? _Probably. Safer--but not better._

 _I’ll get him back. No matter what it takes, I’ll find Barnaby inside Henry Clark._

Not thirty seconds later, there was a knock at the door--a timid, _tap----taptaptap--tap_ combination he recognized with relief. “Come in, Ivan.”

Ivan entered, wearing his own face, looking absolutely filthy and bruised and gloriously alive. Better than that, Keith, Antonio (sporting a bandage around his midsection), Pao-Lin, and--Kotetsu could hardly believe it--Karina followed him in. 

“Hey,” Ivan said, giving a little shrug. “I heard you were alive.”

“I heard there was fighting in the hallways,” Kotetsu said pointedly. “How’d you get through?”

“We fought!” Keith said, beaming at him. “And we kept fighting! Until...well, until the fighting was over. Then, we stopped fighting!”

“Police cleared out,” Antonio clarified. “The Mayor declared a state of emergency. He says he’s gonna bring in the Army as soon as he can, but we all know they’re busy a thousand miles away.”

“The police left the city completely,” Ivan chimed in. “It was pretty crazy for a while.”

“A while? How long--”

“You’ve been unconscious for hours and hours.”

“Isn’t _anyone_ going to let me finish a sentence around--”

“No.” That was all five of them, Karina looking surprised at herself. She kept her back to the wall, and there was still something not-quite _-there_ in her eyes, but she was on her feet. 

 _We all are. Somehow, we made it through._

As if on command, Yuri wheeled through the doors, and Kotetsu wanted to laugh. He must have, because the next thing he heard was Yuri asking, “What’s so funny?”

Kotetsu shook his head. “Nothing, really. You know...it’s going to be pretty crazy around here for a while. No police, riot aftermath, lots of people dead, citizens looking for someone to blame.”

“Yeah. Well, we’re not going to let them blame us,” Pao-Lin said, jutting out her chin.

Kotetsu grinned. True, every other city in the world still had slaves. True, he had no idea what kind of recovery they would need to go through, his friends and his city. But they were together. They were fighting.

He met Yuri’s eyes, and they smoldered at him, in an extremely literal way. _I know what you meant, before,_ Kotetsu thought at him, one hand stroking his daughter’s hair. _You said I didn’t know what had been set in motion. You were right. It was this._

 __

 _There aren’t any good people who don’t stand up. But sometimes, you need people to stand up with you._

 __

He had that, now.

Together, they would light the world on fire.


End file.
